UC-NRLF 


B    3    SSb    Ifl? 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES 


•  POET,    LITTERATEUR, 
SCIENTIST  * 


BY 

WILLIAM    SLOANE   KENNEDY 

•  • 

AUTHOR  OF  A  "  LIFE  OF  HENRY  WADSWORTH   LONGFELLOW,"  ETC. 


Two  Single  Gentlemen  roll'd  into  One." 

G forge  Col  mo*,  tke  Young  fr. 


BOSTON 

S.  E.   CASSINO   AND   COMPANY 
1883 


Copyright, 

BY  S.  E.  CASS1NO  A  CO. 
1883. 


ELECT  ROTVPED. 

BOSTON  8TERKOTTPK   FOUNDRT, 
NO.  4    PiABL    8TMKT. 


"  //  /'/  an  ungenerous  silence  u-hith  leaves  all  the  fair  words 
of  honestly-earned  praise  to  the  u-riter  of  obituary  not  ties  and 
tkt  marblc-uorktr." 

OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES. 


305575 


PREFATORY    NOTE. 


THE  following  work  does  not  profess  to 
be  a  biography  in  the  strictly  technical 
sense  (may  the  proper  time  for  such  an 
undertaking  be  long  deferred  ! )  ;  but  it  is 
designed  to  serve  as  a  treasury  of  infor 
mation  concerning  the  ancestry,  childhood, 
college  life,  professional  and  literary  career, 
and  social  surroundings  of  him  of  whom  it 
treats,  as  well  as  to  furnish  a  careful  critical 
study  of  his  works.  I  have  also  added  a 
full  bibliography  of  the  writings  of  Dr. 
Holmes  to  date,  including  his  contributions 
to  periodical  literature. 

W.  S.  K. 

CAMBRIDGE,  MASS.. 
New  Year's  Day,  1883. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PACE 

I.   THE  TRIPLE-BRANCHED  TREE     .     .  n 

II.   CAMBRIDGE 46 

III.  HARVARD 77 

IV.  PHYSICIAN  AND  PROFESSOR      .     .     .  103 
V.   THE  AUTOCRAT  OF  THE  BREAKFAST- 
TABLE 128 

VI.   NOVELS  AND  ESSAYS 150 

VII.   BEACON  STREET 201 

VIII.   CHARACTERISTICS 234 

IX.   POETRY 267 

X.   THE  SCIENTIST 292 

XI.     AUTOCRATIANA 316 


APPENDIX  I.   THE  PALANQUIN  BEARERS     .    330 
II.    BIBLIOGRAPHY 334 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES. 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES. 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE  TRIPLE-BRANCHED  TREE. 

THE  twenty-ninth  day  of  August,  in  the 
year  eighteen  hundred  and  nine,  was  Com 
mencement  Day  in  a  double  sense  in  the 
town  of  Cambridge,  Massachusetts ;  for  on 
that  day  of  smiles  and  greetings,  —  the  mer 
riest  of  all  the  year,  the  day  of  the  gradu 
ating  festival  of  Harvard  College,  —  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Abiel  Holmes  entered  in  his  little  al 
manac  the  memorandum,  "Son  b.,"  at  the 
same  time  sprinkling  over  the  writing  a  few 
grains  of  sand,  which  still  glisten  upon  the 
page  just  as  they  did  when  he  closed  the 
book,  seventy-four  years  ago. 

It  was  commencement  in  a  double  sense, 
and  it  was  commencement  in  a  triple  sense  ; 
since,  in  addition  to  the  beginnings  that  have 

n 


12  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

already  been  mentioned,  there  was  in  the 
nerves  that  feeling  of  new  vigor,  in  the  land 
scape  that  touch  of  garnet  and  crimson,  in 
the  air  that  tinge  of  coolness,  and  in  all  nature 
that  strange  stillness,  that  kind  of  dead-point 
in  the  revolving  wheel  of  the  seasons,  which, 
combined  with  "the  chirping  of  the  black-coat 
crickets,  and  the  first  goldening  of  the  golden- 
rods,  formed  unmistakable  premonitions  of 
the  approach  of  the  autumnal  season,  the 
pleasantest  time  of  the  year  in  New  Eng 
land.  It  was  under  cheerful  auspices,  then, 
that  the  laughing  philosopher  (at  that  time, 
however,  the  little  crying  philosopher)  of  St. 
Botolph's  town  took  his  first  degree,  and  made 
his  first  public  speech,  graduating  snmma 
cum  lande  from  the  dormitory  of  his  a! ma 
mater.  In  the  country  at  large,  however, 
there  happened  to  be  great  depression  of 
spirits  and  flagging  of  business  interests, 
owing  to  the  embargo,  or  non-intercourse 
policy,  enacted  and  enforced  by  the  American, 
government  against  the  then  warring  Euro 
pean  powers.  There  was  in  Boston  at  that 
time  an  almost  total  cessation  of  commerce ; 
her  merchant  ships  lay  rotting  at  the  wharves, 


THE  TRIPLE-BRANCHED  TREE.  13 

or  were  drawn  up  on  the  beach  and  dis 
mantled  ;  and  the  sound  of  the  busy  ham 
mer  was  unheard  in  her  ship-yards.  But  all 
this  was  to  be  changed  in  a  few  years  (after 
the  war  of  1812)  by  international  adjustment 
and  proclamation  of  peace. 

The  ancestral  tree  of  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes,  whose  birth  we  have  just  been  re 
lating,  is  a  triple-branched  one,  and  the  three 
branches  are  memorized  in  his  own  name. 
By  way  of  sportive  symbol,  we  might  hang 
upon  the  Oliver  branch  a  loaf  of  brown  bread 
("rye  'n'  injun")  and  a  pot  of  baked  beans; 
upon  the  Wendell  branch  a  doughnut,  or 
Dutch  olykoek  ;  and  upon  the  Holmes  branch 
a  wooden  nutmeg.  We  will  begin  with  the 
olykoek  branch. 

The  mother  of  our  poet  was  Sarah  Wen 
dell,  daughter  of  the  Hon.  Oliver  Wendell  of 
Boston.  The  Wendells  are  a  Dutch  family 
who  came  to  Boston  from  Albany  in  the- 
eighteenth  century,  and  it  is  doubtless  largely 
from  them  that  Dr.  Holmes  has  inherited  the 
solid  practical  qualities  —  thrift,  industry,  cau 
tion, —  which  have  made  him  successful  as  a 
physician  and  professor.  Perhaps  his  humor, 


14  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

too,  came  in  with  that  Dutch  strain  of  blood. 
In  his  poem  on  "The  Hudson  "  the  Autocrat 
says  that  his  mother  used  often  to  sing  in 
soft  lullaby  the  story  of  his  descent  from  the 
Albany  Wendells  :  — 
"  '  There  flows  a  fair  stream  by  the  hills  of  the 

West,'  — 

She  sang  to  her  boy  as  he  lay  on  her  breast ; 
*  Along  its   smooth  margin   thy  fathers   have 

played ; 
Beside  its  deep  waters  their  ashes  are  laid.'  " 

The  original  settler  in  Albany  was  Evert 
Jansen  Wendell,  who,  about  the  year  1645, 
came  from  Embden,  in  East  Friesland,  a  town 
just  on  the  border-line  between  Germany 
and  the  Netherlands.  We  know  that  in  1656 
Evert  was  the  Rcgcrendo  Dijakcn  of  the 
Dutch  church  in  Albany,  but  details  of  the 
lives  of  the  early  ancestors  are  very  scarce.* 
Other  early  members  of  the  church  were 
Evert  Wendell,  his  wife  Merritje,  and  his 
sons  John  and  Evert.  Two  of  the  family 

*  To  get  an  idea  of  Dutch  life  in  America  one  should 
study  Irving's  "Knickerbocker"  (with  caution  and 
abatements),  as  well  as  the  numerous  early  annals  of 
New  York  and  Albany. 


THE   TRIPLE-BRANCHED  TREE.  15 

were  shoemakers  ;  some  were  fur-traders  ;  and 
the  family  is  still  a  wealthy  and  powerful  one 
in  Albany.  The  old  square  Dutch  church 
(1715-1806)  was  extremely  quaint,  resembling 
a  good  deal,  one  would  judge,  the  present 
Swedes'  church  in  Philadelphia.  The  walls' 
were  perforated  near  the  top  with  loop-holes, 
and  when  there  was  danger  of  "an  invasion 
the  stout  burghers  sat  through  the  service 
with  their  guns  beside  them,  smoking  their 
pipes  and  wearing  their  hats  and  muffs.  The 
stoves  were  placed  on  posts  in  the  air,  and 
were  against  and  on  a  level  with  the  galleries. 
The  hats  of  the  men  were  ordinarily  hung  on 
rows  of  nails  placed  along  the  front  of  the 
galleries.  There  was  an  hour-glass  on  the 
pulpit  for  the  guidance  of  the  preacher.  The 
window-panes  were  five  inches  square,  and 
upon  them  were  emblazoned  the  names  and 
family  arms  of  some  of  the  church-members. 
The  arms  of  the  Wendells  (a  ship  riding  at 
two  anchors)  were  stained  on  some  panes 
of  the  cast  window.*  Other  quaint  mansions 

*  It  is  a  pity  that  none  of  these  old  stained  window- 
panes  survive.  The  arms  of  the  Wendells  are,  how 
ever,  givco  in  Thomas  Bridgman't  "  Memorials  of  the 


1 6  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

of  the  old  patrons,  or  Knickerbockers,  were 
the  Koeymans'  mansion,  the  houses  of  the 
Verplancks,  and  the  residence  of  the  fur- 
trader,  Harman  Wendell,  a  cut  of  which  is 
given  in  Harpers  MontJily  Magazine  for 
April,  1857.*  (See  also  "  Collections  of  the 
History  of  Albany.") 

It  would  need  a  Van  Ostade  or  a  Teniers 
to  paint  the  domestic  life  of  these  high-stom 
ached,  home-loving,  portly  old  Hollanders  of 
Albany,  —  these  old  Walter  the  Doubters, 
and  Peter  the  Headstrongs,  sitting  by  their 
firesides  with  their  pipes,  and  pondering  their 
unutterable  ponderings.  But  come,  Mr.  Artist, 
you  can  at  least  paint  us,  if  you  please,  the 
typical  Dutch  mansion,  with  its  low-sweeping 
eaves,  glazed  windows,  tiled  roof,  and  gable  of 
small,  imported  black  and  yellow  bricks,  the 
narrow  windows,  the  grotesque  face  of  the  well- 
burnished  knocker,  the  date  of  erection  in 
figures  of  iron  on  the  door,  and  the  absurd 

Dead  in  Boston"  (King's  Chapel  Burying  Ground), 
Boston,  1853. 

*  A  good  example  of  a  reproduction  of  the  general 
features  of  the  antique  Dutch  gable  of  these  old  Albany 
houses  may  be  seen  in  the  brick  residence  built  a  few 
years  ago  by  Mr.  F.  B.  Sanborn,  of  Concord,  Mass. 


THE  TRIPLE-BRAXCITED  TREE.  17 

painted  weather-cock  on  the  roof.  And  paint 
us,  too,  the  well-scrubbed  storp,  the  sanded 
floors,  the  spare-room  hung  round  with  many- 
colored  petticoats,  the  huge  kitchen  with  its 
flaming  side-board,  its  festoons  of  dried  apples 
and  ears  of  Indian  corn,  the  fireplace,  the  tea- 
table  with  its  elephantine  delftware  tea-pot 
(richly  painted),  its  great  dish  of  brown  pork- 
scraps,  huge  apple-pie,  and  dish  of  olykoeks. 
And,  finally,  let  us  see  at  her  household  tasks 
the  good  wife,  with  her  neatly-braided  hair 
and  high-heeled  shoes ;  and  by  the  fireside 
show  us  the  worthy  burgomaster  with  his 
homespun  coat,  his  ten  or  twenty  (or  such  a 
matter)  pairs  of  breeches,  his  huge  shoe- 
buckles,  eel-skin  queue,  broad-brimmed  hat, 
and  long,  painted,  delftware  pipe.  Some  such 
picture  as  this  (only  somewhat  toned  down) 
we  should  have  to  present  to  our  minds  if  we 
would  know  how  the  early  Wendells  lived. 

Two  of  the  Albany  Dutchmen  —  the  bro 
thers,  Abraham  and  Jacob  —  came  to  Boston 
early  in  the  eighteenth  century,  as  has  been 
stated.  Of  these,  Jacob  was  the  great-grand 
father  of  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes.  He  was 
one  of  the  wealthiest  merchants  of  Boston, 


1 8  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

was  colonel  of  the  Boston  regiment,  and  mem 
ber  of  the  city  council,  resided  in  a  brick 
mansion  on  the  southwest  corner  of  Tremont 
and  School  Streets.  He  married  Sarah, 
daughter  of  Dr.  James  Oliver.  Tradition 
says  that  Jacob  caught  his  first  glimpse  of 
his  future  wife  as  he  was  one  day  passing  by 
her  father's  house,  and  when  she  was  only 
nine  years  old  ;  and  that  he  was  so  much 
struck  with  her  beauty  that  he  purposed  then 
and  there  in  his  heart  to  wait  for  her  to  grow 
up  that  he  might  make  her  his  wife.  Jacob 
had  twelve  children  who  married  into  the  Oli 
ver,  the  Sewall,  and  the  Phillips  families.  The 
youngest  daughter  married  William  Phillips, 
the  first  mayor  of  Boston,  whose  son,  Wendell 
Phillips,  has  rendered  the  name  familiar  to 
the  present  generation.*  The  distant  rela 
tionship  between  Wendell  Phillips  and  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes  was  humorously  alluded  to 
by  the  poet  in  his  "  Post-Prandial,"  Phi  Beta 
Kappa  poem  of  1881  :  — 

"  Fair  cousin  Wendell  P., 

Our  ancestors  were  dwellers  beside  the  Zuvder  Zee; 
Both  Grotius  and  Erasmus  were  countrymen  of  we, 
And  Vondel  was  our  namesake,  though  he  spelt  it  with 
a  V." 

•  Heraldic  Journal,  April,  1865 


THE  TRIPLE-BRANCHED  TREE.  19 

Jacob  Wendell  died  in  1761.  His  son 
Oliver  (the  grandfather  of  Dr.  Holmes),  born 
11^1733,  and  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in 
1753,  entered  into  the  mercantile  business 
with  his  father  in  Boston.  He  became  Judge 
of  Probate  for  Suffolk  County,  was  a  member 
of  the  Corporation  of  Harvard  College  from 
1 778  to  1812,  was  a  selectman  during  the  siege 
of  Boston,  and  joined  in  the  congratulatory 
address  to  Washington  upon  its  termination  ; 
he  was,  moreover,  employed  by  Major-Gcn- 
eral  Greene,  upon  an  order  of  Washington, 
to  procure  men  to  watch  the  British  by  land 
and  sea  after  the  evacuation,  in  order  that  no 
spies  might  convey  intelligence  to  the  British 
commanders  of  the  movements  of  the  Ameri 
can  troops.  (See  Drake's  "  Old  Landmarks 
of  Boston,"  pp.  65,  66).  Judge  Wendell 
married  Mary,  daughter  of  Edward  and  Dor 
othy  (Quincy)  Jackson.  The  judge's  daugh 
ter  Sarah  imrricd  the  Rev.  Abiel  Holmes, 
and  became  the  mother  of  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes.  Judge  Wendell  passed  his  last  years 
in  quiet  retirement  in  the  old  Holmes  man 
sion  in  Cambridge.  In  the  latter  part  of  his 
life  he  was  burdened  with  lameness  and  other 


20  OLIVER   WENDELL   HOLMES. 

infirmities  of  age.  He  died  in  1818  at  the 
age  of  eighty-four,  bequeathing  the  Holmes 
estate  to  his  daughter.  He  was  distinguished, 
says  his  friend,  President  Quincy,  for  uncom 
mon  urbanity  of  manners,  and  unimpeachable 
integrity  of  conduct.  The  punctuality  with 
which  he  performed  the  duties  of  office  were 
highly  exemplary. 

We  shall  now  say  good-by  to  the  worthy 
Wendell  burghers,  and  pay  our  respects  to 
the  brown  loaf  (or  Boston)  branch  of  Dr. 
Holmes'  ancestral  tree. 

The  Dorothy  Quincy,  who  was  the  wife  of 
Edward  Jackson,  and  the  mother-in-law  of 
Judge  Oliver  Wendell,  is  the  great-grand 
mother  of  the  poet,  and  is  the  one  whose 
portrait  is  celebrated  by  him  in  his  well- 
known  poem,  "Dorothy  Q."  :  — 

"  Hold  up  the  canvas  full  in  view,  — 
Look !  there's  a  rent  the  light  shines  through, 
Dark  with  a  century's  fringe  of  dust,  — 
That  was  a  Red-Coat's  rapier-thrust! 
Such  is  the  tale  the  lady  old, 
Dorothy's  daughter's  daughter  told." 

The  first  Quincy  was  Edmund.     He  was 


THE   TRIPLE-BRAXCIIED   TREE.  21 

one  of  the  first  settlers  of  Boston,  and  lived 
in  Wollaston,  now  Quincy.  It  is  unnecessary 
to  do  more  than  refer  to  the  members  of  this 
family,  whose  name  and  works  are  familiar  to 
all  students  of  American  history.  The  first 
Josiah  Quincy,  distinguished  as  a  patriot,  died 
young  and  greatly  lamented;  the  second  of 
that  name,  statesman  and  scholar,  President 
of  Harvard  University,  and  author  of  a  his 
tory  of  that  institution,  was  one  of  the  first 
to  denounce  the  slaveholding  tyranny  in 
America  ;  the  third  of  the  same  name,  ex- 
mayor  of  Boston,  has  long  been  identified 
with  the  municipal  interests  of  the  city.  The 
estate  of  the  family  was  on  the  site  of  the 
present  Quincy  Block.  The  house  was  a 
stately  pilastered  structure,  with  honey 
suckles  and  high  damask  rose-bushes  twining 
about  its  porch,  —  its  lawn  a  glacis  adorned 
with  tall  robin-and-oriole-hauntcd  elms.  There 
were  three  Dorothy  Quincys  in  the  family. 
The  Dorothy  who  was  the  niece  of  Dr. 
Holmes'  great-grandmother  was  the  wife  of 
John  Hancock,  one  of  the  signers  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  She  was  a 
noble,  strong-willed  woman  of  the  old  heroic 


22  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

type.  It  is  related  of  her  that  at  one  period 
of  her  life  she  was  accustomed  to  invite  all 
classes  to  her  Saturday  salt-fish  dinners  at 
the  well-known  mansion  fronting  Boston 
Common.  On  one  occasion,  when  Admiral 
d'Estaing  and  his  three  hundred  officers  had 
been  invited  to  breakfast  with  Mr.  Hancock, 
and  sufficient  milk  could  not  be  procured, 
she  sent  out  her  servants  with  orders  to  milk 
sans  cMmonie  all  the  cows  they  could  find  on 
the  Common,  and  to  send  to  her  any  one  who 
complained.  It  is  said  that  the  owners  of 
the  cows  took  the  jest  in  the  best  of  humor, 
laughing  heartily  at  her  free  and  unconven 
tional  procedure.* 

*  For  the  genealogy  of  the  Quincys,  see  the  "  New 
England  Historical  and  Genealogical  Register"  for 
x^57i  P-  2-  1°  tne  same  journal  for  iSSi,  p.  39,  a 
writer  gets  his  "  Dorothy  Q/s"  pretty  badly  mixed.  And 
the  subject  is  still  further  confused  in  the  minds  of 
others.  At  a  breakfast  given  to  Dr.  Holmes,  in  1879,  tyr 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Henry  C.  Potter,  in  the  rooms  of  the 
Century  Club,  New  York,  Chief  Justice  Daly  is  re 
ported  by  a  newspaper  to  have  made  the  following  neat 
repartee  apropos  of  "  Dorothy  Q^.  " :  — 

" '  I  was  present*  (Judge  Daly  is  speaking)  'last 
Thursday  evening  when  Mr.  Holmes  read  to  a  highly- 
gratified  circle  several  of  his  poems,  with  an  account  of 
how  they  came  to  be  written.  The  one  that  especially 


THE  TRIPLE-BRASCHED   TREE.  23 

To  turn  now  to  the  Olivers.  This  strain 
of  blood  came  in  with  Jacob  Wendell,  who 
married  Sarah  Oliver,  daughter  of  Dr.  James 
Oliver.  The  first  Oliver  was  Thomas,  who 
came  to  Boston  from  London  in  1632.  Dan 
iel  Oliver,  father  of  Lieutenant-Governor  An 
drew  Oliver,  was  for  many  years  a  councillor 
in  Boston,  and  died  in  1732.  His  will  con 
tained  the  following  provision:  — 

"  Imprimis,  I  give  and  bequeath  my  house 
adjoining  to  Barton's  Rope-Walk,  called  Spin 
ning  House,  with  the  lands  as  now  fenced 

fixed  my  attention  was  "  Dorothy  Q^.,"  especially  when 
he  informed  us  that  that  lady  was  his  great-grand 
mother.' 

"  Mr.  f/olmcf.  — '  My  grandmother,  Judge  ?' 
"  Judge  Daly.  — '  I  apologize  to  your  grandmother 
for  depriving  her  memory  of  the  nearer  share  she  had 
in  your  creation.  "* 

Now,  unfortunately  for  this  reported  repartee,  the 
poem  itself  shows  (if  the  genealogies  did  not  do  so) 
that  *'  Dorothy  Q^"  was  the  great-grandmother  of  the 
poet.  The  opening  words  of  the  poem  tell  us  that  the 
verses  are  about  "grandmother's  mother,"  and  in  the 
second  st. HI/. i  it  is  written, 

"  Such  is  the  tale  the  lady  old, 
Dorothy  s  daughter's  daughter  told." 

The  "daughter's  daughter"  here  refers  to  Dr. 
Holmes'  mother. 


24  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

in, — about  fifty  feet  square,  —  with  all  the 
profits  and  incomes  of  it,  as  it  now  stands  in 
my  books  (since  built),  forever  to  be  improved 
for  learning  poor  children  of  the  town  of  Bos 
ton  to  read  the  word  of  God,  and  to  write,  if 
need  be,  or  any  other  work  of  charity  for  the 
public  good."  (Mem.  Hist.  Boston,  II.  539, 
note.) 

Lieutenant-Governor  Andrew  Oliver,  the 
obnoxious  stamp  distributor  who  was  burned 
in  effigy,  was  one  of  the  most  affluent  of  the 
old  Bostonians,  and  had  a  private  establish 
ment  equal  to  that  of  any  in  the  province. 
Coaches,  chariot,  negro  slaves,  and  good 
sterling  plate  in  abundance  bore  witness  to 
his  wealth. 

In  his  paper  on  "The  Medical  Profession 
in  Massachusetts,"  published  in  a  volume  of 
Lowell  Institute  Lectures,  by  the  Massachu 
setts  Historical  Society,  in  1869,  Dr.  Holmes 
has  a  few  characteristic  remarks  about  his 
great-great-grandfather,  Dr.  James  Oliver, 
who  died  in  1703.  He  says:  "When  I  was 
yet  of  trivial  age,  and  suffered  occasionally, 
as  many  children  do,  from  what  one  of  my 
Cambridgeport  schoolmates  used  to  call 


THE   TRIPLE-BRAXCIIEt)  TREE.  2$ 

'  ager,'  —  meaning     thereby     toothache,    or 
faceache,  —  I  used  to  get  relief  from  a  cer 
tain  plaster  which  never  went  by  any  other 
name  than  '  Dr.  Oliver.' '      Dr.  Oliver  prac 
tised     in    Cambridge,    and    his    descendant 
found  among  some  old  books  a  small  manu 
script  account-book  of  his,  by  which  it  ap 
pears  that  other  remedies  used  by  him  in  that 
day  were   the  usual   simples,  elder,  parsley, 
fennel,    saffron,    snake-root,    and    the    Elixir 
Proprietatis,  with  other  elixirs  and  cordials, 
as  if   he  rather  fancied  warming  medicines. 
One  of  the  items  in  the  account-book  is  a  bill 
against  the  estate  of  Samuel  Pason,  of  Rox- 
bury,  for  services  rendered  during  his  last  ill 
ness.     Says  Dr.  Holmes,  "  It  is  a  source  of 
honest  pride  to  his  descendant  that  his  bill, 
which  was  honestly  paid,  as  it  seems  to  have 
been    honorably   earned,    amounted    to    the 
handsome   sum    of    seven    pounds   and   two 
shillings.      Let   me   add  that  he  repeatedly 
prescribes  plasters,  one   of   which  was  very 
probably  the  'Dr.  Oliver'  that  soothed  my 
infant  griefs,  and  for  which,  I  blush  to  say, 
that   my  venerated   ancestor   received   from 
Goodman    Hancock   the   painfully   exiguous 


26  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

sum    of    no   pounds,    no    shillings,    and    six 
pence."  * 

We  come  now  to  the  Bradstrects.  Sarah 
Oliver  (wife  of  Jacob  Wendell)  was  the 
daughter  of  Mercy  Bradstreet,  who  was  the 
daughter  of  Dr.  Samuel  Bradstreet,  son  of 
Governor  Simon  Bradstreet  and  Anne  Dudley. 
Simon  Bradstreet  was  Governor  of  the  Mas 
sachusetts  Colony  in  1689.  He  was  educated 
at  Emanuel  College,  Cambridge,  and  came  to 
America  with  Winthrop.  The  Labadist  mis 
sionaries  f  described  him  as  an  old  man,  quiet 
and  grave,  dressed  in  black  silk,  but  not 
sumptuously.  The  arms  of  the  Bradstreets 
are  impressed  on  the  seal  attached  to  Gov 
ernor  Bradstreet's  will,  which  is  on  file  at  the 
Suffolk  Probate  Office  in  Boston.  The  crest 
is  also  found  on  a  piece  of  embroidery  pre 
served  in  the  family.  Burke  gives  the  arms 
of  one  of  the  English  Bradstrects  as  follows, 
and  they  are  substantially  those  of  Governor 
Bradstreet :  — 

Ar.  a  greyhound,  pas.  gu.,  on  a  chief,  sa.,  three 
crescents  or. 

*  For  the  Oliver  Genealogy,  see  "  New  England  His 
torical  and  Genealogical  Register,"  1865,  p.  101. 
t  See  Long  Island  Hist.  Soc.  Coll..  I. 


THE   TRirLE-JiRANCHED   TREE.  2/ 

Mrs.  Anne  Dudley  Bradstreet  was,  as  is 
well  known  to  students  of  American  litera 
ture,  the  first  poet  of  the  New  World,  —  her 
book,  "  The  Tenth  Muse  lately  sprung  up  in 
America  "  (London,  1650),  being  the  first  vol 
ume  of  original  verse  by  an  American.  She 
was  the  daughter  of  Governor  Thomas  Dud 
ley,  to  whom  Mather  applies  this  epitaph  :  — 

"In  books  a  prodigal  they  say  ; 
A  living  cyclopaedia ; 
Of  histories  of  church  and  priest, 
A  full  compendium,  at  least ; 
A  table-talker,  rich  in  sense, 
And  witty  without  wit's  pretence." 

Mrs.  Bradstrcet's  poems  went  through 
eight  editions.  The  Harvard  College  library 
possesses  a  copy  (presented  by  James  Russell 
Lowell)  of  the  small-sized  second  edition.  It 
is  a  pretty  damaged  article  of  book,  and  seems 
to  have  been  in  its  day  a  vade-mecum  of  va 
rious  lovers  of  poesy.  Readers  of  this  day, 
however,  will  scarcely  welter  in  delight  over 
it,  as  President  John  Rogers  of  Harvard  Col 
lege  said  he  did.  In  that  day,  the  fact  of  a 
woman  being  able  to  write  anything  of  merit 


28  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

was  regarded  as  almost  miraculous,  and  ex 
cited  in  some  quarters  adverse  criticism. 
Ward,  author  of  the  "  Simple  Cobbler,"  in 
his  adulatory  verses  prefixed  to  Mrs.  Brad- 
street's  poems,  puts  this  sentiment  into  the 
mouth  of  Apollo  :  — 

"  It  half  revives  my  chil  frost-bitten  blood, 
To  see  a  Woman  once,  do  aught  that's  good." 

The  title  of  her  book  will  indicate  the 
nature  of  its  contents :  "  Several  Poems 
compiled  with  great  variety  of  Wit  and 
Learning,  full  of  Delight ;  Wherein  especially 
is  contained  a  complcat  Discourse,  and  De 
scription  of  the  Four  Elements,  Constitutions, 
Ages  of  Man,  Seasons  of  the  Year,  together 
with  an  exact  Epitome  of  the  three  first 
Monarchyes,  viz.,  The  Assyrian,  Persian, 
Grecian,  And  beginning  of  the  Romane  Com 
monweal  to  the  end  of  their  last  King  :  With 
diverse  other  pleasant  and  serious  Poems. 
By  a  Gentlewoman  in  New-England.  The 
second  Edition,  Corrected  by  the  Author,  and 
enlarged  by  an  Addition  of  several  Poems 
found  amongst  her  Papers  after  her  Death. 
Boston,  Printed  by  John  Eoster,  1678." 


THE  TRIPLE-BRANCHED   TREE.  2$ 

There  are  a  few  enjoyable  passages  in  the 
poems.  In  the  piece  on  "  Summer "  we 
read, — 

"  Now  go  those  frolick  Swains,  the  Shepherd  Lads 
To  wash  the  thick  cfath'd  flocks  with  pipes  full 

glad, 

In  the  cool  streams  they  labor  with  delight, 
Rubbing  their  dirty  coats  till  they  look  white. 

"This  moneth  the  Roses  are  distil'd  in  glasses, 
Whose  fragrant  smel  all  made  perfumes  surpasses, 
The  Cherry,  Gooseberry  are  now  in  th'  prime, 
And  for  all  sorts  of  Pease,  this  is  the  time. 

41 1  heard  the  merry  grasshopper  then  sing, 
The  black  clad  Cricket,  bear  a  second  part, 
They  kept  one  tune,  and  plaid  on  the  same  string, 
Seeming  to  glory  in  their  little  Art." 

In  the  Epilogue,  entitled  "  The  Author  to 
her  Book,"  she  says  :  — 

"  Thou  ill-fonn'd  offspring  of  my  feeble  brain, 

Who  after  birth  did'st  by  my  side  remain, 

Till  snatcht  from  thence  by  friends,  less  wise  than 

true, 
Who  thce  abroad,  expos'd  to  publick  view, 


3O  OLIVER   WENDELL  IIOLXES. 

Made  thee  in  raggs,  halting  to  th'  press  to  trudg, 
Where  errors  were  not  lessened  (all  may  judg). 
At  thy  return  my  blushing  was  not  small 
My  rambling  brat  (in  print)  should  mother  call, 
I  cast  thee  bv  as  one  unfit  for  liirht, 

^  o 

Thy  Visage  was  so  irksome  in  my  sight ; 

Yet  being  mine  own,  at  length  affection  would 

Thy  blemishes  amend,  if  so  I  could,"  etc. 

Among  the  descendants  of  Mrs.  Bradstreet 
we  may  enumerate,  besides  the  poet  Holmes, 
Dr.  William  Ellery  Channing,  the  Rev.  Joseph 
Buckminster  Lee,  the  two  Richard  Henry 
Danas,  and  Wendell  Phillips.  Mrs.  Brad- 
street's  complete  works  have  been  sumptu 
ously  edited  in  a  single  quarto  volume  by 
John  Harvard  Ellis  (Charlestown :  Abram 
E.  Cutter,  1867). 

Let  us  now  turn  our  attention  to  the  Holmes 
family,  which  we  have  jestingly  styled  the 
wooden-nutmeg  branch,  the  original  scat 
of  the  family  being  at  Woodstock,  called 
the  best  and  fairest  of  all  the  agricultural 
towns  of  Connecticut.  Lower,  in  his  "  Eng 
lish  Surnames "  (3d  ed.  vol.  i.,  p.  74),  says 
that  the  surname  Holm,  or  Holmes,  is  classed 
among  those  local  names  which  describe  the 


THE   TRIPLE-BRANCHED  TREE.  31 

nature  or  situation  of  the  original  bearer's 
residence,  such  as  Hill,  Dale,  Wood.  He 
defines  it  as  follows  :  "  Holm,  Holmes,  flat 
land,  a  meadow  surrounded  with  water." 

In  E.  Holmes  Bugbee's  "  Genealogy  of  the 
Holmes  Family  of  Woodstock"  (Killingly, 
Conn.,  1877;  printed  on  the  type-writer),  in 
teresting  details  relating  to  the  various  ances 
tors  are  given.  The  first  Holmes  of  this 
branch  of  the  family  was  Thomas  Holmes  of 
London,  a  lawyer  of  Gray's  Inn,  who  was 
killed  during  the  Civil  War  at  the  siege  of 
Oxford  (1646).  It  seems  that  Woodstock 
was  settled  in  1686  by  a  colony  from  Rox- 
bury,  Mass.,  and  that  John  Holmes  was  one 
of  the  colony  and  one  of  the  first  proprietors 
in  the  new  town.  John  was  born  about  the 
year  1664,  near  Boston,  and  married  Hannah, 
daughter  of  Isaac  Newell,  of  Roxbury,  Mass. 
He  was  a  prominent  man  in  the  new  colony 
and  was  elected  to  many  important  positions 
in  the  town.  Frequent  grants  of  land  were 
made  to  him  for  services  rendered  to  the 
settlement.  His  son  David,  called  "Deacon 
David,"  was  a  prominent  man  in  the  First 
Church  of  Woodstock.  His  widow  Bathshcba 


32  OLIVER    WENDELL  HOLMES. 

(maiden  surname  unknown)  married  as  her 
second  husband  Joseph  Edmunds.  (By  her 
first  husband  she  had  a  son  David,  who 
became  the  father  of  Abiel  Holmes,  who  in 
turn  was  the  father  of  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes, 
the  poet.)  Grandmother  Edmunds,  as  she 
was  called  by  her  descendants,  lived  to  an 
advanced  age,  and  was  always  spoken  of  by 
them  as  "  a  remarkable  woman,  and  of  recog 
nized  authority  in  all  matters  of  housewifery." 
She  had  a  wide  reputation  as  a  doctress  and 
midwife.  It  is  recorded  of  her  that  at  the 
time  of  the  great  snow-storm  of  1717,  when 
the  snow  almost  buried  the  houses,  she  got 
out  of  the  upper  window  of  her  residence  in 
Woodstock,  and  travelled  on  snow-shoes  over 
hill  and  dale  to  Dudley,  Mass.,  to  attend  a 
sick  woman.  She  was  accompanied  by  two 
men  who  had  hold  of  the  ends  of  a  long  pole, 
she  holding  on  by  the  middle  thereof.  The 
genealogist  records  the  following  tradition  of 
this  same  brave  ancestress  of  our  poet :  — 

"  During  the  Indian  troubles  in  the  early  part 
of  the  eighteenth  century  there  was  consid 
erable  alarm  in  all  the  isolated  settlements, 
and  garrison-houses,  or  forts,  were  erected,  in 


THE   TRIPLE-BRANCHED   TREE.  33 

which  to  place  the  women  and  children  while 
the  men  were  away  at  work  in  the  fields. 
On  one  of  these  occasions  of  general  alarm, 
when  the  women  and  children  were  alone  in 
the  fort,  it  was  proposed  that  some  one  of 
their  number  should  go  to  the  garden,  which 
was  some  way  off,  and  gather  vegetables  for 
dinner.  Volunteers  were  called  for,  and  of 
them  all  in  the  fort  that  day  Bathsheba 
Holmes  alone  dared  to  go.  Nothing  daunted 
at  the  thought  that  Indians  might  be  lurking 
about, — and  they  were  frequently  seen, — 
she  bravely  sallied  forth,  and  with  her  capa 
cious  basket  wended  her  way  through  a  long, 
narrow,  winding  path  to  the  garden,  and  there 
gathered  of  beans  and  various  vegetables  a 
heaped  basketful,  and  safely  returned  to  the 
garrison,  where  the  viands,  fresh  grown  on 
virgin  soil,  and  fit  food  for  royal  tables,  were 
skilfully  cooked  and  eaten  with  thankful 
hearts.  Many  years  afterward,  —  the  Indians 
almost  all  gone  to  other  hunting-grounds,  and 
grandmother  Edmunds  now  an  old  woman, — 
a  solitary  Indian,  decrepit  and  broken  in 
spirit,  called  at  her  door  begging,  as  was  ever 
the  custom  of  the  red  men,  for  cider,  promis- 


34  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

ing  a  story  if  the  favor  were  granted.  The 
cider  was  drawn  and  proffered  and  the  story 
told.  It  was  this  :  On  asking  her  if  she  re 
membered  going  to  the  garden  with  her 
basket  long  years  ago,  when  the  women  and 
children  were  alone  in  the  fort,  and  on  being 
answered  in  the  affirmative,  he  said  he  saw 
her  when  she  left  the  fort,  and  determined 
to  have  her  life  before  she  returned.  He 
secreted  himself  in  the  thick  brushwood  by 
the  side  of  the  path  she  would  travel,  and 
when  she  had  approached  sufficiently  near, 
he  stoutly  bent  his  bow,  and  was  about  to  let 
the  well-aimed  arrow  fly,  when  suddenly  a 
mysterious  power  forbade  him,  and  stayed  his 
arm.  When  she  had  gone  he  upbraided  him 
self  for  being  a  cowardly  Indian,  and  redeter- 
mined  to  have  her  life  when  she  returned. 
But  the  same  power  stayed  his  arm  again, 
and  he  went  his  way  wondering  greatly  at  his 
inability  to  kill  a  squaw.  All  the  years  since 
then,  he  said,  he  had  been  watching  her  as 
one  who  was  under  the  protecting  care  of 
the  Indians'  God.  He  thought  it  was  the 
Great  Spirit  that  held  his  arm  and  saved 
her  life." 


THE   TRIPLE-BRANCHED   TREE.  35 

Well  for  us  that  Indian's  superstition !  for 
if  that  arrow  had  been  sped  it  is  probable  that 
the  world  would  have  had  no  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes. 

David  (2)  the  paternal  grandfather  of 
our  poet,  married  for  his  first  wife  Mehita- 
ble,  daughter  of  Ephraim  Mayhcw  ;  his  second 
wife  was  Mrs.  Temperance  Bishop,  by  whom 
he  had  Abiel  Holmes.  David  served  in  the 
French  and  Indian  wars  as  Captain  of  Colonel 
Fitch's  regiment,  through  three  campaigns  — 
the  last  terminating  with  the  conquest  of 
Canada.  On  the  first  intelligence  of  the 
battle  of  Lexington  he  joined  the  army  in 
his  professional  character  of  surgeon,  and  con 
tinued  in  the  service  till  the  fourth  year  of 
the  war,  when,  worn  out  with  the  fatigues  of 
the  camp,  he  returned  home,  and  soon  after 
died,  March  19,  1779.  Besides  Abiel,  David 
had  seven  other  children,  brothers  and  sis 
ters  ;  one  of  them  (named  Lathrop)  who  was, 
like  his  father,  a  physician,  went  to  Midway, 
Georgia,  and  married  there,  but  perished  by 
shipwreck  with  his  wife  on  the  return  voyage. 

In  his  poem,  "A  Family  Record,"  read,  in 
1877,  at  the  Fourth  of  July  Celebration  in 


36  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

Roscland  Park,  Woodstock,  Dr.  Holmes  thus 
alludes  to  a  visit  made  by  him  to  the  home  of 
his  ancestors  :  — 

"  In  days  gone  by  I  sought  the  hallowed  ground  ; 
Climbed  yon  long  slope ;  the  sacred  spot  I  found 
Where  all  unsullied  lies  the  winter  snow, 
Where  all  ungathered  Spring's  pale  violets  blow, 
And  tracked  from  stone  to  stone  the  Saxon  name 
That  marks  the  blood  I  need  not  blush  to  claim,  — 
Blood  such  as  warmed  the  Pilgrim  sons  of  toil, 
Who  held  from  God  the  charter  of  the  soil." 

There  is  a  large  Holmes  family  at  East 
Iladdam,  Conn.,  but  it  is  not  connected  with 
the  Woodstock  family  by  any  known  link  in 
this  country.  In  sly  satire  upon  the  folly  of 
American  coat-of-arms  hunters,  Mr.  D.  Wil 
liams  Patterson,  in  his  sumptuously  printed 
genealogy  of  the  East  Iladdam  family,  offers 
as  a  substitute  for  the  ordinary  European 
imitation  a  bit  of  Yankee  Heraldry,  or  kind 
of  Indian  totemism,  in  the  shape  of  the  fol. 
lowing  mark  of  a  certain  John  Holmes  (the 
mark  recorded  in  the  Proprietors'  book  of  the 
town) :  "John  holmes  his  markc  for  his  Cre- 
turs  is  two  slits  one  ye  top  of  y*  off  care  and 


THE  TRIPLE-BRANCHED  TREE.  37 

a  half  pcny  one  y*  under  side  of  y6  neare 
eare.  Apriell  ye  i/th  1716."  Mr.  Patterson 
also  gives  a  representation,  or  cut,  which  he 
offers  as  a  substitute  for  the  usual  emblazon 
ments  of  the  heraldry  books.  His  "repre 
sentation  "  consists  of  a  very  creditable 
picture  of  the  head  of  a  belled  heifer  with 
her  ears  cropped.  There  is  good  grim 
humor  about  this  Patterson.  How  Carlyle 
or  Thoreau  would  have  liked  to  expatiate  on 
the  sincerity,  the  eternal  veracity,  etc.,  of  the 
heifer's-head  coat-of-arms !  One  is  reminded 
of  Sydney  Smith,  who  said  that  his  ancestors 
never  had  any  arms,  and  invariably  sealed 
their  letters  with  their  thumbs. 

We  have  now  swept  the  wide  circuit  of  the 
genealogical  outskirts  of  our  subject,  and  are 
nearly  ready  to  enter  the  charmed  circle  of 
the  poet's  boyhood,  described  by  himself  with 
such  tender  and  lingering  fondness  in  so 
many  parts  of  his  writings.  But  first  we 
must  present  a  picture  of  his  father,  Abiel 
Holmes. 

Born  in  Woodstock  in  1763,  his  father 
David,  the  surgeon-physician,  sent  him  in 
1779,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  to  Yale  College. 


38  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

We  are  told  that  young  Abiel  rode  all  the 
way  to  New  Haven  on  horseback.  At  col 
lege  he  was  considered  one  of  the  most  ac 
complished  scholars  of  his  class.* 

He  graduated  in  1783  ;  was  for  a  time  tutor 
in  the  college  under  President  Ezra  Stiles  ; 
preached  for  some  years  in  Midway,  Georgia  ; 
in  1790  married  Mary,  daughter  of  President 
Stiles;  in  1791  removed  to  Cambridge  for  his 
health  ;  was  installed  as  pastor  of  the  First 
Congregational  Church  in  that  town  (then 
having  about  two  thousand  inhabitants),  and 
remained  pastor  of  the  church  for  forty  years. 
In  1795  his  wife  died,  leaving  no  children. 
In  1800  he  married  Sarah  Wendell,  by  whom 
he  had  five  children,  namely  :  Mary  Jackson, 
born  in  1802,  married  Dr.  Usher  Parsons,  of 
Providence;  Ann  Susan,  born  in  1804,  mar 
ried  Charles  W.  Upham,  who  was  successively 
a  clergyman,  mayor  of  Salem,  State  Senator, 
and  Congressman  ;  Sarah  Lathrop,  born  in 
1805,  died  in  1812;  Oliver  Wendell,  born 

*  Many  of  the  details  immediately  following  are 
taken  from  the  eighth  volume  of  the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc. 
Collections,  and  from  Dr.  Alex.  McKenzie's  Lectures 
on  the  History  of  the  First  Church  in  Cambridge. 


THE    TRIPLE-BRANCHED   TREE.  39 

August  29,  1809;  John,  born  1812.  Sarah 
(Wendell)  Holmes,  the  mother  of  these  chil 
dren,  died  August  19,  1862,  in  the  ninety- 
third  year  of  her  age.  She  was  a  bright, 
keen-witted,  vivacious  woman,  much  beloved 
by  her  neighbors  and  by  her  husband's  parish 
ioners.  Her  son,  the  poet,  has  dedicated  to 
her  one  of  his  books. 

In  1807  Dr.  Abiel  Holmes  moved  into  the 
famous  Gambrel-Roofed  House  near  the  Col 
lege ;  in  1817  he  delivered  a  course  of  lec 
tures  on  Ecclesiastical  History  in  Harvard 
College;  in  1831  he  asked  a  release  from  his 
pastoral  duties,  which  was  granted,  with  noble 
testimonials  to  his  character  and  learning. 
He  died  June  12,  18^37,  at  the  age  of  seventy- 
four. 

The  words  which  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes  ap 
plies  to  the  Rev.  Pitt  Clarke,  father  of  Dr. 
Edward  Hammond  Clarke,  of  Boston,  may 
be  used  of  his  own  father :  "He  was  one 
of  those  excellent  New  England  clergymen 
whose  blood  seems  to  carry  the  scholarly  and 
personal  virtues  with  it  to  their  descendants, 
oftentimes  for  successive  generations."  He 
was  pre-eminently  a  scholar  and  antiquarian, 


40  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

and  loved  to  buy  rare  old  editions  of  classic 
works.  His  contributions  to  the  Massachu 
setts  Historical  Society  are  very  numerous, 
and  he  was  for  more  than  twenty  years  its 
corresponding  secretary ;  his  handwriting 
was  nearly  as  plain  as  print.  It  was  he  who, 
in  1816,  discovered  in  the  Prince  Library  the 
third  manuscript  volume  of  the  invaluable 
Winthrop  Journals,  which  was  deciphered 
and  published.  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes  once  re 
marked  to  the  writer  that  he  thought  his 
father  should  have  been  an  historian  and 
antiquarian  solely ;  he  said  that  he  himself 
inherited  from  him  a  love  of  books  and 
an  antiquarian  taste  —  a  thing  that  his 
readers  do  not  need  to  be  told.  During 
the  conversation  just  alluded  to  Dr.  Holmes 
remarked  that  it  was  a  curious  fact  that  years 
before  Tennyson  made  the  "  In  Memoriam  " 
stanza  famous,  his  own  father  had  written 
verses  in  that  style,  which  were  published  by 
the  Stiles  family  in  their  "  Family  Tablet." 

The  personal  appearance  of  Abiel  Holmes 
was  most  genial  and  pleasant,  as  indeed  his 
portrait,  preserved  in  the  rooms  of  the  Massa 
chusetts  Historical  Society,  witnesses.  This 


THE   TRIPLE-BRANCHED   TREE.  41 

small  oil-portrait  shows  asymmetrical,  massive 
head,  reminding  one  a  good  deal  of  the  son's, 
especially  in  the  unusual  height  of  the  cere 
bral  portion,  or  the  part  above  the  ears.  The 
lips  are  full,  showing  a  rich  nature ;  the  nose 
ample,  the  face  possessing  in  general  a  good 
deal  of  feature ;  the  expression  somewhat 
professionally  clerical,  but  very  kindly  and 
sweet.  The  artist  has  painted  the  good  doc 
tor  in  his  surplice  and  gown,  and,  although 
not  yet  old,  he  shows  signs,  as  to  his  head, 
that  he  may  yet  reach  the  "hairless  and 
cappy  "  condition.  There  are  those  living  in 
Cambridge  who  remember  his  pleasant  and 
kindly  manners,  and  tell  how  as  he  walked 
the  streets  he  would  often  stop  to  talk  with 
little  children,  and  make  them  presents  of 
confectionery. 

At  the  Holmes -Breakfast  in  1879  Colonel 
T.  W.  Higginson  spoke  of  him  as  that  most 
delightful  of  sunny  old  men.  Colonel  Hig 
ginson  passed  his  boyhood  in  Cambridge  in 
a  roomy  old  mansion,  which  was  at  that  time 
the  very  next  door  to  the  Cambrel-Roofed 
House.  He  relates  that  one  evening  when  he 
and  some  other  boys  at  the  house  were  playing 


42  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

in    the   library   the   gray-haired,    gentle   old 
divine,  who  had  been  taking  an  interest  in 
their    sports, —  never   complaining   of    their 
loudest    noise, —  went    to    the   frost-covered 
window,  and  sketched  with  his  penknife  what 
seemed  a  clump  of  bushes  and  a  galaxy  of 
glittering  stars,  and  above  it  he  wrote  the  in 
scription,    Per    aspcra   ad  astra,  —  through 
difficulties  to  the  stars, — at  the  same  time 
explaining  to  the  boys  what  the  words  meant. 
Of  a  sermon  preached  by  Abiel  Holmes, 
and  afterwards  printed,  a  contemporary  said  : 
"  It  reads  as  placid  as  he  looked :  ...  it  is 
another   instance   of    that    now    lost    art    of 
felicitously   weaving    in    Scripture   language 
with  the  texture  of  every  sentence  and  the 
expression  of  every  thought,  which  gave  such 
peculiar  unction  to  the  most  common  utter 
ances  of  the  elder  divines." 

The  severe  Calvinistic  faith  in  which  he 
was  bred  did  not  chill  his  genial  social  na 
ture.  Nor  was  he  in  any  respect  bigoted. 
His  position  at  Cambridge  was  a  peculiarly 
delicate  one,  the  Unitarian  faith  prevailing  in 
the  University,  and  the  Unitarian  spirit  being 
very  strong  in  the  whole  community.  But 


THE   TRIPLE-BRANCHED  TREE.  43 

his  charitable  and  liberal  nature  led  him  to 
fraternize  cordially  with  all  good  men,  and 
for  years  he  was  in  the  habit  of  exchanging 
pulpits  with  the  Unitarian  clergymen  of 
Cambridge  and  Boston. 

Dr.  Holmes  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Society  for  promoting  Christian  Knowledge, 
and  also  of  the  American  Education  Society. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  American  Academy 
of  Arts  and  Sciences,  Overseer  of  Harvard 
University,  and  a  trustee  of  the  Institution 
at  Andover.  He  received  in  1805  the  degree 
of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  the  University 
of  Edinburgh,  and  was  made  LL.D.  by 
Alleghany  College  in  1822.  In  1801  he 
published  a  "History  of  Cambridge"  -a 
sort  of  handbook  of  the  town.  His  life  of 
President  Ezra  Stiles  is  clear,  lucid,  and 
manly  in  style,  and  is  excellent  reading  to 
this  day.  Take,  for  example,  this  description 
of  the  personal  appearance  and  habits  of  the 
subject  of  his  memoir  :  — 

11  President  Stiles  was  a  man  of  low  and 
small  stature  ;  of  a  very  delicate  structure ; 
and  of  a  well-proportioned  form.  His  eyes 
were  of  a  dark  gray  color ;  and,  in  the 


44  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

moment  of  contemplation,  singularly  pene 
trating.  His  voice  was  clear  and  energetic. 
His  countenance,  especially  in  conversation, 
was  expressive  of  mildness  and  benignity  ; 
but,  if  occasion  required,  it  became  the  index 
of  majesty  and  authority.  .  .  . 

"  He  always  carried  a  pencil  in  his  pocket, 
and  a  small  quarto  sheet  of  blank  paper, 
doubled  lengthwise,  on  which  he  minuted 
every  noticeable  occurrence  and  useful  infor 
mation.  When  he  travelled  he  carried  several 
blank  sheets,  folded  in  the  same  manner,  and 
applied  them  to  the  same  purpose.  When 
these  memoranda  formed  materials  sufficient 
for  a  volume  he  had  them  bound  ;  and  they, 
collectively,  compose  four  curious  volumes  of 
Itineraries,  preserved  in  his  cabinet  of  manu 
scripts."  * 

*  At  the  rooms  of  the  Rhode  Island  Historical 
Society  in  Providence  they  show  you  a  little  vest- 
pocket  almanac  and  note-book  of  President  Stiles,  some 
of  the  memoranda  in  which  are  in  English  and  some 
in  Hebrew  characters.  One  of  the  entries  consists  of 
the  following  quaint  and  pithy  line:  "Col.  Ethan 
Allen  of  Vermont  died  and  went  to  Hell  this  dav!" 
Whole  volumes  of  divinity  could  not  better  embody  the 
spirit  of  Connecticut  Puritanism,  — as  it  was  and  as  it 
is. 


THE   TRIPLE-BRANCHED  TREE.  45 

Jared  Sparks  spoke  of  Dr.  Holmes'  Amcru 
can  Annals  as  among  the  most  valuable  pro 
ductions  of  the  American  press.  It  is  a 
book  that  fetches  a  high  price  to  this  day. 


CHAPTER   II. 

CAMBRIDGE. 

"Know  old  Cambridge?     Hofe  you  do. — 
Born  there?     Don't  say  so!     I  was,  too."  —  HOLMES. 

TOPOGRAPHICALLY  speaking,  the  city  of 
Cambridge  at  the  present  clay  is  like  a  vast 
spider's  web  with  nine  main  radii,  compacted 
with  numerous  circular  and  cross  lines,  along 
which,  as  well  as  along  the  chief  radii,  the 
houses  arc  strung  like  beads  of  dew.  At  the 
centre  of  the  web  stands  the  old  Gambrel- 
Roofcd  House,  and  close  by  are  the  buildings 
of  Harvard  University ;  on  the  south  of  the 
city  glides  the  silent  Charles  River  through 
its  salt  marshes,  — 

"  Full  without  noise,  and  whispers  in  his  reeds." 

Over  all  the  houses,  the  old  gardens,  the  aca 
demic  quiet,  the  culture,  soars  the  gargoyled 
tower  of  Memorial  Hall,  seen  from  far  off  as 
the  most  conspicuous  feature  in  the  landscape. 
There  is  a  particular  charm  in  the  rural  en- 
46 


CAMBRIDGE.  47 

virons  of  Cambrklge, — its  invigorating  air, 
charged  full  of  ozone,  iodine,  oxygen,  its  wide 
prospects,  and  its  beautiful  surburban  villas. 
The  Belmont  and  Arlington  region  is  especially 
beautiful ;  the  hills  thrown  up  against  the  sky 
like  an  embroidered  curtain,  netted  with  old 
winding  lanes,  and  dreamy  at  dusk  with  dim 
indigo  and  violet  tints ;  at  sunset  enormous 
spokes  diverging  from  the  sunken  orb  through 
gold-smoke  and  rift  and  cumulus  cloud  ;  in 
the  summer  the  trees  of  greenest  emerald  ;  in 
autumn  chromatized  with  red  and  yellow  ;  the 
ash  trees  a  cool  and  delicate  purple  ;  the  oaks 
and  birches  by  the  pond  sides  glowing  with  a 
subdued  glory  (garnet  and  pale  lemon)  ;  and  in 
sequestered  woodland  walks  no  sound  to  break 
the  silence  save  the  rustle  of  the  footsteps 
through  thick  rugs  of  colored  leaves.  It  was 
impossible  that  leafy,  blossoming  old  Cam 
bridge,  with  her  population  of  literary  people, 
should  not  produce  poets.  She  has  had  not 
only  three  or  four  eminent  bards,  but  a  great 
many  minor  ones,  as  well  as  a  goodly  number 
of  writers  of  poetical  prose.  Cambridge  society 
is  distinguished  for  a  temperate  elegance  and 
refinement  of  life  somehow  reconciled  and 


48  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

harmonized   with   a   most   plentiful    lack   of 
money.     United  with  the  quiet  urbanity  and 
reserve   which    always   accompany   the  finer 
nervous  organizations,  there  is  also  the  cos 
mopolitanism  of  culture  and  travel,  and  the 
timidity  of  scholarly  conservatism  ;  in  religion 
the  polite  silence  of  minds  cheerfully  resigned 
to  philosophical  nescience  ;  in  political  mat 
ters  a  subdued  cynicism,  capable  of  bursting 
forth,  however,  into    the   fiercest   patriotism 
when  stung  into  activity ;  and  finally,  in  the 
matter  of  family  traditions  and  caste,  a  pretty 
generous  democratic  indifference,  — intellect, 
personal  bravery,  and  choice  manners  open 
ing  every  door,  except  in  the  case  of  a  very 
few  idiotic  old  families.    As  a  matter  of  course, 
there  are   in    Cambridge,  as  in  every  other 
college  town,  two  other  classes  besides  that 
which  gives  the  town  its  distinctive   social 
complexion,  —  namely,  the  tradespeople  and 
the  transient  student  class.     Each  of  these 
groups  keeps  up  an  independent  life.     Topo 
graphically  viewed,  the  arrangement   is  like 
that  of  the  Chinese  ivory  thimble;  the  first 
compartment,  ring,  or  layer  on  the  outside  is 
that  of  "  the  people,"  monotonously  common- 


CAMBRIDGE.  49 

place  ami  alike  in  every  city,  and  only  in  spots 
original  and  picturesque  ;  drawing  the  circle 
still  closer,  you  include  the  old  families  and 
the  professors'  families  (culture,  pride,  limited 
incomes,  charming  society,  comfortable  resi 
dences,  with  here  and  there  a  quaint  heavy- 
beamed,  ancestral  house,  occupied  by  nice 
old-fashioned  people,  as  snugly  ensconced  for 
life  with  their  books  and  flowers  as  your  heart 
could  wish);  and,  finally,  in  the  centre  comes 
the  student-class  with  its  Bohemian  life  apart, 
and  glad  to  be  apart. 

At  the  time  our  poet  was  born  the  city  had 
a  population  of  three  thousand  five  hundred 
souls.  Listen  to  a  description  of  some  of  its 
local  grandeurs,  taken  from  Dr.  Abiel  Holmes' 
"  History  of  Cambridge."  He  says  that 
"  West  Boston  Bridge,  connecting  Cambridge 
with  Boston,  is  a  magnificent  structure  "  !  — 
"  There  arc  five  (!)  college  edifices  belonging 
to  Harvard  University."  —  "The  gardens  of 
Thomas  Brattle  are  universally  admired."  — 
"  It  is  generally  conceded  that  this  town  emi 
nently  combines  the  tranquillity  of  philosophic 
solitude  with  the  choicest  pleasures  and  ad 
vantages  of  refined  society."  That  last  sen- 


50  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

tence  is  as  true  to-day  as  it  was  nearly  a  hun 
dred  years  ago  ;  but  how  changed  is  almost 
everything  else  !  Cambridge  has  now  some 
fifty-eight  thousand  inhabitants,  a  quarter  of 
a  hundred  college  buildings  ;  and  the  gardens 
of  Thomas  Brattle,  where  are  they  ? 

Of  the  appearance  of  Cambridge  in  the  early 
part  of  this  century  Lowell  has  something 
to  say  in  his  delightful  "Fireside  Travels." 
He  tells  of  the  noisy  belfry  of  the  college,  the 
square,  brown  tower  of  the  little  Episcopal 
church  (still  in  existence),  the  slim,  yellow 
spire  of   the  parish   meeting-house,  the  few 
old  houses  that  stood  around  the  bare  Com 
mon,    the    half-dozen    stately    old    Georgian 
houses   fronting    southward    on    the    "  Old 
Road,"  •  -  now    Mt.   Auburn  Street,  —  along 
which  the  Charles    slipped  quietly  through 
green    and    purple     salt-meadows    darkened 
in  patches  with  the  "  blossoming  black  grass." 
Then  there  was  the  snowy-gleaming,  vine- 
covered  cottage  of  the  old  whitewashes  who 
had  bestowed  the  candent  baptism  of  his  lime 
upon  his  house,  the  stems  of  his  trees,  and 
his  fence,  and   would    tolerate,  we  are  told, 
only  whitest  fowls  and  whitest  china-asters  in 


CAMBRIDGE.  5 1 

his  dooryard.  There  was  but  one  brewer  in 
the  town,  a  certain  venerable  Ethiopian  named 
Lewis,  who  manufactured  the  village  beer, 
both  spruce  and  ginger.  His  whole  stock  he 
carried  in  a  roofed  hand-cart,  "  on  whose 
front  a  sign-board  presented  at  either  end  an 
insurrectionary  bottle."  The  barber's-shop 
was  a  sunny  little  room  fronting  on  the  com 
mon,  —  the  proverbial  loquacity  of  the  place 
made  still  more  lively  by  the  sweet  jangle  of 
birds  —  canaries,  Java  sparrows,  robin,  thrush, 
and  bobolink,  and  a  white  cockatoo  that,  as 
the  barber  averred,  spoke  in  the  Hottentot 
language. 

The  home  of  a  poet's  childhood,  if  a 
pleasant  one,  is  to  him  always  the  most  beauti 
ful  and  poetical  spot  on  earth.  There  he 
first  dreamed  those  unutterable  dreams  of  an 
ideal  realm  ;  there  life  unfolded  its  rosy  petals 
noiselessly  around  his  wondering  mind,  and 
the  crumbling  maroon  and  red-gold  cloud- 
bars  of  dawn  hung  trembling  over  an  en 
chanted  land  of  dreams.  How  keen  the 
senses  !  —  that  first  sniff  of  fresh  cracker- 
fragrance  in  a  baker's  shop  ;  the  scent  of  that 
jessamine  that  clung  by  grandmother's  win- 


52  OLIVER   WENDELL  IIOLXES. 

dow ;  those  bees  in  the  gigantic,  sunshine- 
drunken,  red  hollyhocks ;  those  wonderful 
great  horses  in  the  barn,  and  those  gliding, 
epicurean  old  loafers  —  the  frogs  in  the  pond, 
—  but  once  in  our  life  are  we  permitted  such 
enjoyment  as  we  took  in  these  things,  and 
that  is  in  the  period  of  childhood,  when  the 
universe  stretches  in  soft  illusion  about  us, 
infinite  in  mystery  and  infinite  in  poetical 
beauty. 

None  more  fortunate  in  his  childhood  than 
our  young  Oliver,  and  no  wonder  that  he  has 
never  tired  of  talking  and  writing  about  it. 
For  a  poet  to  have  lived  until  adolescence 
in  the  soothing  scholastic  quiet  of  a  quaint 
rural  town  is  something  enviable.  But  if,  in 
addition,  he  chance  to  be  the  son  of  one  of 
the  most  influential  and  beloved  citizens  of 
the  place,  connected  with  the  noblest  families 
in  the  community,  and  living  in  a  spacious 
old  mansion  consecrated  by  historical  mem 
ories,  and  surrounded  by  flowers  and  trees 
and  gardens  —  breathed  over  twice  a  day  by 
the  sweet  breath  of  the  sea,  —  then  we  may 
count  his  childhood  as  almost  an  ideally  perfect 
one.  And  such  a  happiness  as  this  fell  to  the 


CAMRKIDGE.  53 

lot  of  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes.  The  old 
yellow  hip-roofed  house  in  which  he  was  born 
is  now,  alas !  fairly  over-crowed  and  out 
shone  by  the  two  large  and  elegant  buildings 
erected  immediately  at  its  side  and  rear, 
namely,  the  Harvard  College  Gymnasium  (of 
brick)  and  the  new  brown-stone  Law  School 
Building.  The  old  house  now  seems  to  wear 
almost  a  shamefaced  look,  like  an  old  lady 
in  mits  and  calash  bonnet  in  the  midst  of  an 
audience  of  fashionable  young  people.  In 
Dr.  Holmes'  youth  there  stood  in  the  imme 
diate  neighborhood  of  the  old  manse  the  Red 
Lion  Tavern,  the  quaint  barber-shop  described 
by  Lowell  in  his  "  Fireside  Travels,"  and  the 
house  of  Royal  Morse,  of  college  fame,  resi 
dent  here  from  1809  to  1872.  Somewhere 
about  the  place  there  was  a  honeysuckle 
vine,  with  its  pink  and  white  perfumed 
blossoms,  and  on  the  western  side  of  the 
house  stood  a  row  of  tall  Lombardy  poplars : 
a  row  of  elms  still  leads  up  to  the  west 
ern  entrance.  The  house  is  now  about 
one  hundred  and  sixty  years  old,  and  with 
proper  care  is  good  for  another  cen 
tury.  It  was  built  in  the  old  massive, 


54  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

beamy  fashion,  wrought-iron  nails  being  used 
throughout.  A  large  barn  was  formerly  con 
nected  with  the  premises,  as  well  as  a  four- 
acre  lot  in  the  rear,  now  used  as  a  playground 
by  the  students  of  Harvard  University,  and 
known  as  Holmes'  Field.  The  successive 
owners  of  the  estate  have  been  :  Barnabie 
Lamson,  1683  ;  Nathaniel  Sparhawk;  a  "Mr. 
ffox,"  1707,  probably  the  Rev.  Jabez  Fox 
of  Woburn  ;  Jonathan  Hastings  ("Yankee 
Jont") ;  Jonathan  Hastings,  Jr.,  for  nearly 
thirty  years  steward  of  the  college  ;  Eliphalct 
Pearson,  Professor  of  Oriental  Literature ; 
Judge  Oliver  Wendell ;  Rev.  Abiel  Holmes ; 
and  finally  Harvard  University,  to  which  cor 
poration  the  estate  was  sold  in  1871  for 
fifty-five  thousand  dollars.  Oliver  Wendell 
had  paid  seven  thousand  dollars  for  it  in 
1807.  Occupants  of  the  house  since  the 
death  of  Abiel  Holmes,  have  been  Pro 
fessor  \Villiam  Everett  and  Professor  James 
Bradley  Thayer. 

Every  New  Englander  knows,  or  ought  to 
know,  the  following  historical  facts :  That 
immediately  after  the  battle  of  Lexington  the 
neighboring  population  rallied  to  Cambridge 


CAMBRIDGE.  5$ 

by  thousands;  that  what  is  now  known  as 
the  Holmes  House  was  selected  by  General- 
in-Chief  Artemas  Ward  as  his  headquarters ; 
that  here  was  planned  the  occupation  of 
Bunker  Hill;  that  in  the  long,  low  dining- 
room,  looking  out  through  its  heavily  sashed 
windows  on  the  Common,  General  Ward 
entertained  Washington  and  his  staff,  the 
banquet  being  enlivened  by  patriotic  songs ; 
and  finally  that  in  this  house  the  lamented 
General  Warren  rested  on  his  way  to  Bunker 
Hill,  and  that  here  Benedict  Arnold  received 
his  first  commission.  In  "The  Poet  at  the 
Breakfast-table"  Dr.  Holmes  speaks  of  the 
tall  mirror  in  which  the  British  officers  used 
to  look  at  their  red  coats ;  and  the  deep, 
cunningly  wrought  arm-chair  in  which  Lord 
Percy  used  to  sit  while  his  hair  was  dressing, 
and  which  he  considerately  protected  with  a 
cloth  to  save  the  silk  covering  embroidered 
by  the  poet's  grandmother. 

The  study  was,  of  course,  a  place  of  great 
attraction  for  young  Oliver  and  his  brother 
John.  It  was  in  that  heavy-beamed  room 
(the  southeast  ground-floor  apartment),  lined 
utterly,  as  to  its  walls,  with  books,  that  they 


56  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

played  and  tumbled  about  among  the  leather- 
coated  folios  and  other  o's,  the  like  of  which 
in  after  years  they  would  both  learn  to  love 
with  the  enthusiasm  of  the  scholar  and  the 
antiquary.      There   is   a   tradition    that    the 
many  dints  to  be  seen  upon  the  floor  of  the 
study  were    made    by  the  butts  of   muskets 
belonging   to    British    soldiers;    but    of    the    * 
truth   of   this    surmise   no    man    for   certain 
knoweth.    The  old  house  had  its  nooks  and 
crannies,  and  its  mysteries.     In  the  " Auto 
crat  "  we  learn  of  a  certain  odorous  closet  on 
whose  shelves  used  to  lie  bundles  of  sweet- 
marjoram,  and  pennyroyal,  and  lavender,  and 
mint,    and    catnip,    and    where    apples    and 
peaches  were   stored   away  to   ripen.     Else 
where   we    are    told   of    wainscoats    behind 
which  the  mice  were  always  scampering  and 
squeaking  and  rattling  down  the  plaster;  of 
the  cellar  where  the  cold  slug  clung  to  the 
walls,  and  the  long  white  potato-shoots  went 
groping  along  the  floor  toward  the  light;  and 
finally  of  the  garret  with  its  flooring  of  lath 
with  ridges  of   mortar   bulging  out  between 
them  ("  which  if  you  tread  on  you  will  go  to 
—  the  Lord  have  mercy  on  you!  where  will 


CAMBRIDGE.  57 

you  go  to  ?"),  its  old  beams  with  the  marks  of 
the  axe  plainly  visible,  and  its  old  decaying 
furniture — arm-chair,  churn,  spinning-wheel, 
andirons,  cradle,  and  leather  portmanteaus 
"like  stranded  porpoises,  their  mouths  gaping 
in  gaunt  hunger  for  the  food  with  which  they 
used  to  be  gorged  to  bulging  repletion." 

Just  under  the  old  garret  are  chambers, 
on  the  windows  of  which  names  had  been 
scratched,  some  of  them  with  romantic  asso 
ciations.  The  southeast  chamber  was  used 
as  a  library-hospital,  or  museum,  where  disa 
bled  and  veteran  books  were  placed  to  end 
their  days  in  dusty  peace.  Young  Holmes 
seems  to  have  spent  some  rainy  days  to  good 
purpose  in  this  book-infirmary.  He  says  a 
work  he  found  there  on  the  "  Negro  Plot "  in 
New  York  helped  to  implant  a  feeling  of 
dislike  of  the  negroes  which  it  took  Mr. 
Garrison  a  good  many  years  to  root  out. 
Another  book  he  found  here  was  the  novel 
"Thinks  I  To  Myself,"  as  well  as  an  old 
work  on  alchemy,  in  which  he  sought  in  vain 
for  information  which  would  enable  him  to 
convert  his  lead-sinkers  and  the  weights  of 
the  kitchen  clock  into  good  yellow  gold. 


58  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

In  the  Atlantic  Almanac  for  1868  Dr. 
Holmes  writes  in  a  charmingly  colloquial  and 
confidential  style  of  the  old  garden  and  his 
experiences  therein.  Such  delightful  egotism 
and  namctt  disarm  criticism  and  win  our 
sympathy  :  — 

"  How  long  ago  was  it  —  Consule  Jacobo 
Monrovio, —  nay  even  more  desperate  than 
that,  Consule  Jacobo  Madisonio  —  that  I  used 
to  stray  along  the  gravel  walks  of  THE  GAR 
DEN  ?  It  was  a  stately  pleasure-place  to  me 
in  those  days.  Since  then  my  pupils  have 
been  stretched,  like  old  India-rubber  rings 
which  have  been  used  to  hold  one's  female 
correspondence.  It  turns  out  by  adult  meas 
urement  to  be  an  oblong  square  of  moderate 
dimensions,  say  a  hundred  by  two  hundred 
feet.  There  were  old  lilac  bushes  at  the 
right  of  the  entrance,  and  in  the  corner  at 
the  left  that  remarkable  moral  pear-tree 
which  gave  me  one  of  my  first  lessons  in  life. 
Its  fruit  never  ripened,  but  always  rotted  at 
the  core  just  before  it  began  to  grow  mellow. 
It  was  a  vulgar,  plebeian  specimen  at  best, 
and  was  set  there  no  doubt  only  to  preach  its 
annual  sermon,  a  sort  of  '  Dudleian  Lecture,' 


CAMBRIDGE.  59 

by  a  country  preacher  of  small  parts.  But  in 
the  northern  border  was  a  high-bred  Saint 
Michael  pear-tree,  which  taught  a  lesson  that 
all  of  gentle  blood  might  take  to  heart ;  for 
its  fruit  used  to  get  hard  and  dark,  and  break 
into  unseemly  cracks,  so  that  when  the  lord 
of  the  harvest  came  for  it  it  was  like  those 
rich  men's  sons  we  see  too  often,  who  have 
never  ripened,  but  only  rusted,  hardened,  and 
shrunken.  We  had  peaches,  lovely  nectar 
ines,  and  sweet  white  grapes,  growing  and 
coming  to  kindly  maturity  in  those  days ;  we 
should  hardly  expect  them  now,  and  yet  there 
is  no  obvious  change  of  climate.  As  for  the 
garden-beds  they  were  cared  for  by  the  Jon 
athan  or  Ephraim  of  the  household,  some 
times  assisted  by  one  Rule,  a  little  old  Scotch 
gardener,  with  a  stippled  face  and  a  lively  tem 
per.  Nothing  but  old-fashioned  flowers  in 
them,  —  hyacinths,  pushing  their  green  beaks 
through  as  soon  as  the  snow  was  gone,  or 
earlier;  tulips,  coming  up  in  the  shape  of 
sugar  'cockles,'  or  cornucopiae,  —  one  was  al 
most  tempted  to  look  to  see  whether  nature 
had  not  packed  one  of  those  two-line  '  senti 
ments  '  we  remember  so  well  in  each  of  them  ; 


60  OLIVER   \YEXDELL  HOLMES. 

peonies,  butting  their  way  bluntly  through 
the  loosened  earth  ;  flower-de-luces  (so  I  will 
call  them,  not  otherwise)  ;  lilies,  roses,  dam 
ask,  white,  blush,  cinnamon  (these  names 
served  us  then) ;  larkspurs,  lupines,  and  gor 
geous  hollyhocks.  With  these  upper-class 
plants  were  blended,  in  republican  fellowship, 
the  useful  vegetables  of  the  working  sort,  — 
beets,  handsome  with  dark  red  leaves  ;  car 
rots,  with  their  elegant  filigree  foliage  ;  pars 
nips  that  clung  to  the  earth  like  mandrakes  ; 
radishes,  illustrations  of  total  depravity,  a 
prey  to  every  evil  underground  emissary  of 
the  powers  of  darkness  ;  onions,  never  easy 
until  they  are  out  of  bed,  so  to  speak,  a  com 
municative  and  companionable  vegetable, 
with  real  genius  for  soups  ;  squash-vines  with 
their  generous  fruits,  the  winter  ones  that  will 
hang  up  'agin  the  chimbly'  by-and-by,  the 
summer  ones,  vase-like,  as  Hawthorne  de 
scribed  them,  with  skins  so  white  and  delicate, 
when  they  are  yet  new-born,  that  one  thinks 
of  little  sucking-pigs  turned  vegetables,  like 
Daphne  into  a  laurel,  and  then  of  tender  hu 
man  infancy,  which  Charles  Lamb's  favorite 
so  calls  to  mind ;  these,  with  melons,  promis- 


CAMBRIDGE.  6 1 

ing  as  '  first  scholars,'  but  apt  to  put  off  ripen 
ing  until  the  frost  came  and  blasted  their 
vines  and  leaves,  as  if  it  had  been  a  shower 
of  boiling  water,  were  among  the  customary 
growths  of  the  garden. 

"  But  Consuls  Madisonius  and  Munrovius 
left  the  seat  of  office,  and  Consuls  Johannes 
and  Quincius,  and  Andreas,  and  Martinus, 
and  the  rest,  followed  in  their  turn,  until  the 
good  Abraham  sat  in  the  curule  chair.  In 
the  meantime  changes  had  been  going  on 
under  our  old  gambrel-roof,  and  The  Garden 
had  been  suffered  to  relapse  slowly  into  a 
state  of  wild  nature.  The  haughty  flower- 
de-luces,  the  curled  hyacinths,  the  perfumed 
roses,  -had  yielded  their  place  to  suckers  from 
locust-trees,  to  milkweed,  burdock,  plantain, 
sorrel,  purslain ;  the  gravel  walks,  which 
were  to  Nature  as  rents  in  her  green  gar 
ments,  had  been  gradually  darned  over  with 
the  million-threaded  needles  of  her  grasses, 
until  nothing  was  left  to  show  that  a  garden 
had  been  there. 

11  But  the  garden  still  existed  in  my  mem 
ory ;  the  walks  were  all  mapped  out  there, 
and  the  place  of  every  herb  and  flower  was 
laid  down  as  if  on  a  chart. 


62  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

11  By  that  pattern  I  reconstructed  The 
Garden,  lost  for  a  whole  generation  as  much 
as  Pompeii  was  lost ;  and  in  the  consulate 
of  our  good  Abraham,  it  was  once  more  as 
it  had  been  in  the  days  of  my  childhood. 
It  was  not  much  to  look  upon  for  a  stranger ; 
but  when  the  flowers  came  up  in  their  old 
places  the  effect  on  me  was  something  like 
what  the  widow  of  Nain  may  have  felt  when 
her  dead  son  rose  on  the  bier  and  smiled 
upon  her. 

"  Nature  behaved  admirably,  and  sent  me 
back  all  the  little  tokens  of  her  affection  she 
had  kept  so  long.  The  same  delegates  from 
the  underground  fauna  ate  up  my  early  rad 
ishes  ;  I  think  I  should  have  been  disappointed 
if  they  had  not.  The  same  buff-colored  bugs 
devoured  my  roses  that  I  remembered  of  old. 
The  aphis  and  the  caterpillar  and  the  squash- 
bug  were  cordial  as  ever,  just  as  if  nothing 
had  happened  to  produce  a  coolness  or  an 
entire  forgetfulness  between  us.  But  the 
butterflies  came  back  too,  and  the  bees  and 
the  birds. 

"  The  yellow-birds  used  to  be  very  fond  of 
some  sunflowers  that  grew  close  to  the  pear- 


CAMBRIDGE.  63 

tree  with  a  moral.  I  remember  their  flitting 
about,  golden  in  the  golden  light,  over  the 
golden  flowers,  as  if  they  were  flakes  of 
curdled  sunshine.  Let  us  plant  sunflowers, 
I  said,  and  sec  whether  the  yellow-birds  will 
not  come  back  to  them.  Sure  enough,  the 
sunflowers  had  no  sooner  spread  their  disks, 
and  begun  to  ripen  their  seeds,  than  the  yel 
low-birds  were  once  more  twittering  and  flut 
tering  around  them." 

The  references  to  the  sandy  sterility  of  the 
soil  of  the  old  garden  remind  one  of  a  passage 
in  "The  Poet  at  the  Breakfast  Table,"  wherein 
Dr.  Holmes  facetiously  says  that  he  might, 
if  he  chose,  find  an  excuse  for  his  moral  short 
comings  and  peccadillos  in  the  characteristics 
of  this  region.  He  says  that  the  pests  of  the 
soil  induced  in  him  Manichaean  ways  of  think 
ing. 

Never  were  there  two  boys  who  drank 
in  enjoyment  at  every  pore  more  incessantly 
than  did  young  Oliver  and  John  Holmes. 
The  latter  has  as  gay  and  effervescent  a 
spirit  as  his  more  widely-known  brother. 
The  larks  they  engaged  in  as  boys  were 
undoubtedly  numerous  and  racy.  There  are 


64  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

some  hints  of  these  in  the  writings  of  Dr. 
Oliver  W.  Holmes.  The  following  lines  from 
a  college  poem  *  of  his,  entitled  "  Scenes  from 
an  Unpublished  Play,"  have  about  them  an 
aroma  and  suggestion  of  "  high  old  times  "  :  — 

"  Back-room  at  Porter's,  —  Dick,  solus. 
"  I'm  not  well  to-night — methinks  the  fumes 
Of  overheated  punch  have  something  dimmed 
The  cerebellum  or  pineal  gland, 
Or  where  the  soul  sits  regent." 

There  are  a  good  many  glimpses,  too,  of 
first  school-days  in  the  poet's  writings.  His 
first  school-teacher  was  Ma'am  Hancock, 
whose  cottage  (called  the  "ten-footer")  stood 
close  by  the  district  school-house.  Another 
school-mistress  of  his  was  Dame  Prentiss,  in 
whose  low-studded  room  stood,  we  are  told,  a 
pail  full  of  drinking  water,  flavored  with  the 
white  pine  of  which  the  pail  was  made,  and  a 
brown  mug  "  out  of  which  one  Edmund,  a 
red-faced  and  curly-haired  boy,  was  averred  to 
have  bitten  a  fragment  in  his  haste  to  drink." 
The  old  lady  had  a  long  willow  stick  with 
which  she  could  reach  refractory  pupils.  We 

*  Published  in  the  Collegian,  and  not  reprinted. 


CAMBRIDGE.  65 

further  learn  that  there  were  certain  infantine 
love-makings  going  on  beneath  the  good 
dame's  nose,  but  of  which  she  was,  of  course, 
entirely  oblivious. 

Holmes  says  that  as  a  child  he  was  afraid 
of  the  tall  masts  of  ships  and  schooners,  and 
used  to  hide  his  eyes  from  them.  Another 
source  of  terror  to  him  was  a  great  wooden 
hand,  the  sign  of  a  glove-maker  who  lived  a 
mile  or  two  from  Cambridge.  One  of  the 
luxuries  of  the  boy  was  to  lie  in  bed  in  the 
early  morning  and  listen  to  the  creaking  of 
the  heavily-loaded  wood-sleds  drawn  slowly 
over  the  shrieking  snow  by  the  large,  patient 
oxen.  It  was  the  custom  in  those  days  for 
the  Sabbath  to  begin  with  Saturday  night, 
and  on  such  occasions  playthings  must  be 
put  away  and  work  cease,  while  a  solemn 
hush  and  awe  fell  upon  the  household  —  a 
silence  only  broken  by  the  continuous  chirp 
ing  of  the  evening  crickets  mingled  with 
the  batrachian  hymns  from  the  neighboring 
swamp. 

One  of  the  great  holidays  for  boys  was  the 
College  Commencement,  which  will  be  de 
scribed  in  the  next  chapter.  Moreover,  about 


66  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

the  time  of  the  college  vacation  in  May  came 
two  Boston  holidays,  styled  "Nigger  'lection" 
and  "Artillery  Election,"  —  the  former  so 
called  because  on  that  day  (the  last  Wednes 
day  in  May)  the  colored  people  were  allowed 
to  engage  in  the  festivities  on  the  Common, 
the  occasion  being  the  assembling  of  the  Leg 
islature.  Both  days  somewhat  resembled 
country  fairs.  The  Tremont  Street  mall  was 
then  (as  it  still  is  to-day)  appropriated  by 
penny  refreshment  venders  and  small  won 
der-workers.  It  was  lilac  time,  and  every 
body  carried  huge  bunches  of  the  delicious 
blossoms,  "  with  heart-shaped  leaves  of  rich 
green,"  and  overmastering  odor.  The  Cam 
bridge  boys  had  grand  fun  on  these  occasions. 
"A  bunch  of  'laylocks'  and  a  'lection  bun 
used  to  make  us  happy  in  old  times,"  wrote 
Dr.  Holmes  once,  as  he  called  up  the  happy 
days  of  his  boyhood.  And  there  was  some 
thing  stronger  than  water  drank  on  the  occa 
sion  ;  the  rummy  perfume  of  egg-pop  and 
"  black  joke,"  mingled  with  whiffs  of  pepper 
mint  and  checkerberry  from  the  candy  stalls, 
and  the  floating  fragrance  of  the  omnipresent 
lilacs. 


CAMBRIDGE.  6/ 

Of  the  books  read  by  the  boys  in  Abiel 
Holmes'  household  his  son  Oliver  has  enu 
merated  Miss  Edgeworth's  "  Frank,"  and 
"  Parents'  Assistant,"  "  Original  Poems," 
"Evenings  at  Home,"  and  "Cheap  Reposi 
tory  Tracts."  A  book  whose  moral  made 
a  great  impression  on  his  mind  was  a  pleas 
ant  story  called  "  Eyes  and  No  Eyes,"  which 
tells  of  a  certain  discontented  boy  who  thought 
that  he  could  have  improved  on  the  arrange 
ment  of  the  seasons,  but  finally  discovered 
that  he  had  an  equal  love  for  each  of  them. 

But  to  return  to  school  experiences.  In 
the  brief  description  which  the  poet  has  given 
of  Dame  Prentiss'  school,  he  mentions  the 
existence  of  "  a  great  forfeit-basket  filled  with 
its  miscellaneous  waifs  and  dcodands"  This 
last  word  is  one  of  the  few  in  Dr.  Holmes' 
writings  which  seem  to  show  traces  of  his 
legal  studies.  In  legal  language  a  dcodand 
was  a  personal  chattel  (a  cart  or  a  horse,  e.g.) 
which  had  occasioned  the  death  of  a  rational 
creature,  and  been  forfeited  to  the  crown. 
The  deodands,  or  forfeits,  of  Dame  Prentiss' 
school  were  probably  instruments  designed 
for  the  capture  and  imprisonment,  or  torture, 


68  OLIVER    WENDELL  HOLMES. 

of  those  wonderful  little  creatures  which  so 
attract  the  school-boy's  itching  palm,  and  so 
allure  his  fancy, — i.e.  flies!  After  leaving 
this  school  young  Holmes  became  a  pupil  of 
Master  William  Biglow,.  mentioned  by  Duyc- 
kinck  as  a  writer  of  considerable  merit. 

From  a  paper  by  Dr.  Holmes  in  the  Pro 
ceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society  for  September,  1865,  and  from  an 
article  by  him  entitled  "Cinders  from  the 
Ashes,"  published  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly 
for  January,  1869,  the  following  facts  con 
cerning  his  experiences  at  the  Cambridge- 
port  school  have  been  culled  :  — 

This  school  was  established  in  1819  by  the 
efforts  of  Dr.  James  P.  Chaplin  and  others. 
It  was  about  a  mile  from  the  Holmes  man 
sion  to  the  school,  and  the  way  led  through 
that  thinly-inhabited,  woody,  marshy,  huckle- 
berryish  tract  which  many  citizens  of  Cam 
bridge,  not  yet  very  old,  are  fond  of  telling 
you  about, — doubtless  because  it  was  the 
scene  of  so  many  of  their  childish  adventures 
and  sports.  There  were  very  few  houses 
then  between  Old  Cambridge  and  "The 
Port."  The  school  was  limited  to  thirty 


CAMBRIDGE.  69 

students,  was  sometimes  called  the  Academy, 
and  was  considered  to  offer  much  better  ad 
vantages  than  other  schools  of  the  time.  It 
stood,  during  most  of  the  period  when  it  was 
attended  by  young  Holmes,  on  the  left  hand 
side  of  Prospect  Street  as  you  turn  down 
from  Main  Street.  Holmes  was  ten  years 
old  when  he  began  to  attend  the  school,  and 
he  remained  there  for  about  five  years,  leav 
ing  it  in  1824,  to  go  to  the  Andover  Phillips 
Academy.  The  first  instructor  at  the  Port 
School  was  Edward  S.  Dickinson,  a  graduate 
of  Harvard  College,  and  at  that  time  a  stu 
dent  of  medicine.  Other  instructors  when 
Holmes  attended  were  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Barrett,  the  Rev.  Ezra  Stiles  Gannett,  Mr. 
John  Frost,  Mr.  Edward  Frost,  the  Rev. 
Nathaniel  Gage,  and  Mr.  Thaddeus  Bowman 
Bigelow.  The  boys  of  the  school  were  a 
good  deal  given  to  fighting.  Their  cham 
pion,  a  nephew  of  Washington  Allston,  had 
at  least  two  combats  with  outside  boys,  who 
were  styled  Port-chucks  in  the  parlance  of 
the  Academy  boys.  One  of  the  poet's  school 
mates  at  the  "  Port "  was  Richard  Henry 
Dana,  Jr.,  and  another  was  —  the  poet  him- 


7O  OUTER    WENDELL  HOLMES. 

self  shall  tell  who.    (See  his  magazine  article, 
"Cinders  from  the  Ashes.") 

"Sitting  on  the  girls'  benches,  conspicuous 
among  the  school-girls  of  unlettered  origin 
by  that  look  which  rarely  fails  to  betray 
hereditary  and  congenital  culture,  was  a 
young  person  of  very  nearly  my  own  age. 
She  came  with  the  reputation  of  being 
'  smart,'  as  we  should  have  called  it,  '  clever ' 
as  we  say  nowadays.  This  was  Margaret 
Fuller,  the  only  one  among  us  who,  like  Jean 
Paul,  like  the  Duke,  like  Bettina,  has  slipped 
the  cable  of  the  more  distinctive  name  to 
which  she  was  anchored,  and  floats  on  the 
waves  of  speech  as  Margaret.  Her  air  to 
her  schoolmates  was  marked  by  a  certain 
stateliness  and  distance,  as  if  she  had  other 
thoughts  than  theirs  and  was  not  of  them. 
She  was  a  great  student  and  a  great  reader 
of  what  she  used  to  call  'naw-ve'ls.'  I  remem 
ber  her  so  well  as  she  appeared  at  school  and 
later,  that  I  regret  that  she  had  not  been 
faithfully  given  to  canvas  or  marble  in  the 
day  of  her  best  looks.  None  know  her  aspect 
who  have  not  seen  her  living.  Margaret,  as 
I  remember  her  at  school  and  afterwards,  was 


CAMBRIDGE.  Jl 

tall,  fair-complcxioned,  with  a  watery,  aqua 
marine  lustre  in  her  light  eyes,  which  she 
used  to  make  small,  as  one  does  who  looks  at 
the  sunshine.  A  remarkable  point  about 
her  was  that  long  flexile  neck,  arching  and 
undulating  in  strange  sinuous  movements, 
which  one  who  loved  her  would  compare  to 
those  of  a  swan,  and  one  who  loved  her  not 
to  those  of  the  ophidian  who  tempted  our 
common  mother.  Her  talk  was  affluent, 
magisterial,  de  haut  en  has,  some  would  say 
euphuistic,  but  surpassing  the  talk  of  women 
in  breadth  and  audacity.  Her  face  kindled, 
and  reddened,  and  dilated  in  every  feature  as 
she  spoke,  and,  as  I  once  saw  her  in  a  fine 
storm  of  indignation  at  the  supposed  ill- 
treatment  of  a  relative,  showed  itself  capable 
of  something  resembling  what  Milton  calls 
the  viraginian  aspect." 

A  school  essay  of  Margaret's  was  brought 
to  the  poet's  father  for  examination.  When 
young  Oliver  took  it  up  he  found  that  it 
began  thus  :  "  It  is  a  trite  remark."  Alas  ! 
he  did  not  know  the  meaning  of  this  word. 
It  was,  he  says,  a  crushing  discovery  of  her 
superiority. 


72  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

After  five  years'  study  at  the  Cambridge- 
port  school,  Holmes  was  taken  to  Andover 
to  study  a  year  in  Phillips  Academy  as  a 
preparation  for  college.  At  this  time  he  was 
an  energetic  and  vivacious  youngster,  full  of 
all  sorts  of  fun  and  mischief,  with  "  ten 
dencies  in  the  way  of  flageolets  and  flutes," 
and  a  weakness  for  pistols  and  guns  and 
cigars,  which  latter  he  would  hide  in  the 
barrel  of  his  pistol,  where  maternal  eyes 
would  never  dare  to  look  for  them. 

In  due  time  parents  and  "slightly  nostal 
gic  boy  "  jogged  away  in  the  old  carriage  for 
Andover,  up  the  old  West  Cambridge  road, 
now  North  Avenue,  past  the  powder-house, 
and  on  through  country  lanes  and  roads  till 
their  destination  was  reached.  They  stopped, 
just  at  the  entrance  of  the  central  village,  at 
a  low  two-story  white  house,  the  residence 
of  one  of  the  theological  professors.  The 
carriage  and  his  fond  parents  left  him  at 
last,  and  he  watched  the  retreating  vehicle 
rising  and  sinking  along  the  road  until  at 
length  it  entirely  disappeared.  He  was  the 
most  homesick  boy  that  ever  lived.  His  case 
excited  sympathy.  "  There  was  an  ancient, 


CAMBRIDGE.  73 

faded  old  lady  in  the  house,"  he  says,  "  very 
kindly  but  very  deaf,  rustling  about  in  dark 
autumnal  foliage  of  silk  or  other  murmurous 
fabric,  somewhat  given  to  snuff,  but  a  very 
worthy  gentlewoman  of  the  poor-relation 
variety.  She  comforted  me,  I  well  remem 
ber,  but  not  with  apples,  and  stayed  me,  but 
not  with  flagons.  She  went  in  her  benevo 
lence,  and  taking  a  blue  and  white  soda- 
powder,  mingled  the  same  in  water,  and 
encouraged  me  to  drink  the  result.  It  might 
be  a  specific  for  sea-sickness,  but  it  was  not 
for  home-sickness.  The  fizz  was  a  mockery, 
and  the  saline  refrigerant  struck  a  colder  chill 
to  my  heart.  I  did  not  disgrace  myself,  how 
ever,  and  a  few  days  cured  me,  as  a  week  on 
the  water  often  cures  sea-sickness." 

One  of  the  masters  who  sat  in  the  dreary 
old  academy  building  was  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Horatio  Stearns,  an  excellent  and  kindly  man 
who  won  the  little  Cambridge  boy's  heart. 
On  the  side  of  the  long  school-room  was  a 
large  clock-dial,  bearing  these  words  :  — 

YOUTH  is  THE  SEED-TIME  OF  LIFE. 
Mr.  Holmes  gives  us  some  account  of  his 


74  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

schoolmates  at  Anclover.    One  of  them  "with 
a    fuliginous     complexion,    a    dilating    and 
whitening  nostril,  and  a  singularly  malignant 
scowl,"  years  afterwards  committed  some  act 
of  murderous  violence,  and  ended  his  days  in 
a  madhouse.     The  delight  of   this  ferocious 
youngster   was   to   kick    our   Oliver's    shins 
under  the  bench.     Another  little  fellow,  upon 
whom  young  Holmes'  eye  was  riveted  from  the 
moment  of  his  entrance,  had  black  hair  and 
very  black  eyes,  and  his  gaze  was  fastened 
to  his  book  as  if  he  had  been  reading  a  will 
that  made  him  heir  to  a  million.     This  was 
the  future  distinguished  Greek  scholar  and 
Bible     commentator,     Prof.     Horatio    Balch 
Hackett.     Another  classmate  was  the  well- 
known  Phineas  Barnes,  of  Portland,  Maine. 

Among  the  professors  were  Dr.  Porter, 
Dr.  Woods,  and  the  well-known  Prof.  Moses 
Stuart,  — the  latter  tall,  lean,  Roman-faced, 
impressive,  the  very  incarnation  of  a  noble 
Roman  orator,  carrying  his  broadcloth  cloak 
over  his  arm  like  a  toga,  and  looking  more 
like  a  walking  statue  than  a  man. 

The  boys  had  their  sports,  visits  to  Indian 
Ridge,  climbing  the  hills,  swimming  in  the 


CAMBRIDGE.  75 

dark  and  rapid  Shawshcen  or  in  the  not  very 
distant  Mcrrimack,  etc.  One  of  young 
Holmes'  exercises  was  a  very  creditable 
translation  from  Virgil.  It  is  preserved  in 
his  complete  poetical  works. 

Then  there  was  a  visit  with  a  classmate  to 
Havcrhill,  where  our  Cambridge  lad  saw  the 
door  of  the  ancient  parsonage  with  the  bullet- 
hole  in  it,  through  which  Benjamin  Rolfe,  the 
minister,  was  shot  by  the  Indians  on  the  2Qth 
of  August,  1703. 

An  absorbing  occupation  of  the  boys  was 
watching  one  of  the  tutors  who  had  had  a 
dream  that  he  would  fall  dead  while  he  was 
praying.  He  regarded  it  as  a  warning,  and 
asked  the  boys  to  come  to  see  him  in  turn 
before  he  died.  "More  than  one  boy  kept 
his  eye  on  him  during  his  public  devotions, 
possessed  by  the  same  feeling  the  man  had 
that  followed  Van  Amburgh  about  with  the 
expectation,  let  us  not  say  hope,  of  seeing  the 
lion  bite  his  head  off  sooner  or  later."' 

Years  afterward,  in  1867,  Dr.  Holmes  re 
visited  the  scene  of  his  year's  schooling,  and 
gives  us,  in  the  same  article  from  which  we 
have  quoted,  a  pleasant  account  of  his  ex- 


76  OLIVER    WENDELL  HOLMES. 

pericnces.  He  says  the  ghost  of  a  boy  was 
at  his  side  as  he  wandered  among  the  places 
he  knew  so  well :  "  '  Two  tickets  to  Boston,' 
I  said  to  the  man  at  the  station. 

"But  the  little  ghost  whispered,  *  When 
yon  leave  this  place  you  leave  me  behind  you' 

" '  One  ticket  to  Boston,  if  you  please. 
Good-by,  little  ghost.' " 


CHAPTER    III. 
HARVARD. 

IN  this  country  of  monotonous  uniformity 
of  social  classes  there  is  a  tendency  to  make 
the  most  of  such  exclusive  associations  as 
are  not  obnoxious  to  the  spirit  of  democracy. 
Probably  in  no  other  country  in  the  world  do 
college  men  cling  to  each  other  through  life 
with  such  tenacity  as  they  do  here ;  and  col 
lege  men  know  that  there  is  no  other  social 
relation  in  life  so  purely  enjoyable  and  valu 
able  to  them  as  is  the  gentle  free-masonry  of 
the  college  class,  both  in  undergraduate  and 
postgraduate  life.  The  Harvard  College 
class  of  1829  has  been  fortunate  in  possess 
ing  a  poet  (Dr.  Holmes)  who  is  an  enthu 
siastic  college  man,  and  has  made  his  class 
unique  by  his  poems  in  its  honor.  ".The 
Boys  of  '29 "  he  delights  to  call  them  ;  and 
he  is  the  greatest  boy  of  them  all.  His 
whole  life  is  pervaded  by  college  associations. 
How  delightful  to  perpetuate  through  a  life- 

77 


78  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

time  those  first  fresh  and  indefinable  feel 
ings  of  our  college  life,  —  days  of  divine 
leisure  when  we  drank  deep,  unquenchable 
draughts  from  the  fountains  of  the  wisdom  of 
the  ages,  and  heard  afar  off  the  indistinguish 
able  roar  of  life,  content,  as  we  thought,  to 
eat  of  that  sweet  lotus  fruit  of  knowledge  for 
ever  ! 

In  1825,  immediately  after  his  return  home 
from  Phillips  Academy,  young  Holmes  entered 
Harvard,  the  class  containing  the  then  un 
usually  large  number  of  seventy-one  freshmen, 
fifty-eight  of  whom  graduated.  Among  the 
professors  whose  names  appear  on  the  pages 
of  the  four  little  college  catalogues  issued 
from  1826  to  1829,  inclusive,  there  is  the 
name  of  only  one  man  now  living,  and  that  is 
Dr.  Oliver  Stearns,  of  the  class  of  1826.  In 
his  class  poem  of  1879,  "Vestigia  Quinque 
Retrorsum,"  Dr.  Holmes  has  given  a  pleasing 
sketch  of  President  Kirkland  and  the  college 
professors  of  his  day  :  — 

"  Look  back,  O  comrades,  with  your  faded  eyes, 
And  see  the  phantoms  as  I  bid  them  rise. 
Whose  smile  is  that  ?     Its  pattern  Nature  gave, 
A  sunbeam  dancing  in  a  dimpled  wave ; 


HARrARD.  79 

KIRKLAND  alone  such  grace  from  Heaven  could 

win, 

His  features  radiant  as  the  soul  within ; 
That  smile  would  let  him  through  Saint  Peter's 

gate 

While  sad-eyed  martyrs  had  to  stand  and  wait. 
Here  flits  mercurial  Farrpr;  standing  there, 
See  mild,  benignant,  cautious,  learned  Ware, 
And  sturdy,  patient,  faithful,  honest  Hedge, 
Whose  grinding  logic  gave  our  wits  their  edge ; 
Ticknor,  with  honeyed  voice  and  courtly  grace ; 
And  Willard  larynxed  like  a  double  bass  ; 
And  Channing  with  his  bland  superior  look, 
Cool  as  a  moonbeam  on  a  frozen  brook, 
While  the  pale  student,  shivering  in  his  shoes, 
Sees  from  his  theme  the  turgid  rhetoric  ooze ; 
And  the  born  soldier,  fate  decreed  to  wreak 
His  martial  manhood  on  a  class  in  Greek, 
Popkin  !    How  that  explosive  name  recalls 
The  grand  old  Busby  of  our  ancient  halls  ! 
Such  faces  looked  from  Skippon's  grim  platoons, 
Such  figures  rode  with  Ireton's  stout  dragoons ; 
He  gave  his  strength  to  learning's  gentle  charms, 
But  every  accent  sounded  *  Shoulder  arms  ! '  " 

At  the  time  Holmes  entered  college  the 
spirit  of  the  age  was  already  setting  against 
ministers  and  "orthodoxy."  In  1826  Am- 


80  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

herst  College  was  founded  for  the  express 
purpose  of  counteracting  the  liberal  tenden 
cies  of  Harvard,  and  Henry  Ware  was  severely 
denounced  for  not  preaching  eternal  punish 
ment  to  the  students.  It  is  well  to  remember 
these  facts  when  we  would  seek  the  causes  of 
the  life-long  warfare  against  the  bigotries  of 
"  orthodoxy  "  which  has  been  waged  by  Dr. 
Holmes. 

At  college  he  delivered  the  poem  before 
the  Hasty  Pudding  Club,  had  the  poem  at 
Exhibition,  also  one  at  Commencement,  and 
was  chosen  as  the  class  poet.  Among  the 
classmates  of  Holmes  were  Professor  Ben 
jamin  Peirce,  the  eminent  mathematician  and 
astronomer  (who,  by  the  way,  was  born  in  the 
same  year  with  Holmes,  i.  f.,  1809);  Judge 
Benjamin  R.  Curtis  of  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court;  Rev.  Dr.  James  Freeman 
Clarke,  author  and  clergyman  (the  "good 
Saint  James ") ;  Judge  George  T.  Bigelow 
of  the  Massachusetts  Supreme  Court ;  the 
Hon.  George  T.  Davies ;  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Chandler  Robbins ;  the  Rev.  William  H. 
Channing;  and  the  Rev.  Samuel  Francis 
Smith,  author  of  "My  Country,  'tis  of 


HARVARD.  8 1 

Thee,"  and  the  hymn,  "  The  Morning  Light 
is  Breaking."  Dr.  Holmes  has  thus  wittily 
spoken  of  his  classmate,  Smith  :  — 

*rAnd  there's  a  nice  youngster  of  excellent  pith,  — 
Fate  tried  to  conceal  him  by  naming  him  Smith ; 
But  he  shouted  a  song  for  the  brave  and   the 

free,  — 
Just    read    on    his    medal,    *  My   country,'    *  of 

thee ! ' " 

Charles  Sumner  was  a  member  of  the 
class  of  1830,  and  the  historian  Motley  be 
longed  to  the  class  of  1831.  Motley  roomed 
at  the  historical  Brattle  House,  amid  elegant 
surroundings.  Dr.  Holmes  has  said  of  him 
that  he  was  probably  the  youngest  student 
in  college.  An  unusual  affection  and  inti 
macy  between  Holmes  and  Motley  continued 
through  life,  and  the  former  has  written  the 
life  of  his  historian  friend.  In  a  communica 
tion  addressed  to  the  Massachusetts  Histori 
cal  Society,  Dr.  Holmes  said  :  — 

"  Motley  was  more  nearly  the  ideal  of  a 
young  poet  than  any  boy — for  he  was  only 
a  boy  as  yet  —  who  sat  on  the  benches  of 
the  college  chapel.  His  finely  shaped  and 


82  OLIVER    WENDELL  HOLMES. 

expressive  features,  his  large,  luminous  eyes, 
his  dark  waving  hair,  the  singularly  spirited 
set  of  his  head,  which  was  most  worthy  of 
note  for  its  shapely  form  and  poise,  his  well- 
outlined  figure,  gave  promise  of  his  manly 
beauty,  and  commended  him  even  to  those 
who  could  not  fully  appreciate  the  richer 
endowments  of  which  they  were  only  the 
outward  signature." 

Of  another  of  his  college-mates,  Charles 
Chauncy  Emerson,  Dr.  Holmes  has  thus 
spoken :  "  A  beautiful,  high-souled,  pure, 
exquisitely  delicate  nature  in  a  slight  but 
finely  wrought  mortal  frame,  he  was  for  me 
the  very  ideal  of  an  embodied  celestial  intelli 
gence.  I  may  venture  to  mention  a  trivial 
circumstance  because  it  points  to  the  char 
acter  of  his  favorite  reading,  which  was  likely 
to  be  guided  by  the  same  tastes  as  his 
brother's,  and  may  have  been  specially  di 
rected  by  him.  Coming  into  my  room  one 
day,  he  took  up  a  copy  of  Hazlitt's  British 
Poets.  He  opened  it  at  the  poem  of  Andrew 
Marvell's,  entitled  "The  Nymph  Complain 
ing  for  the  Death  of  her  Fawn,"  which  he 
read  to  me  with  delight  irradiating  his  ex- 


HARVARD.  83 

pressive  features.  The  lines  remained  with 
me,  or  many  of  them,  from  that  hour  :  — 

*  Had  it  lived  long,  it  would  have  been 
Lilies  without,  roses  within.' 

I  felt  as  many  have  felt  after  being  with  his 
brother,  Ralph  Waldo,  that  I  had  entertained 
an  angel  visitant.  The  Fawn  of  Marvell's 
imagination  survives  in  my  memory  as  the 
fitting  image  to  recall  this  beautiful  youth  ; 
a  soul  glowing  like  the  rose  of  morning  with 
enthusiasm,  a  character  white  as  the  lilies  in 
its  purity." 

It  is,  of  course,  impossible  now  to  produce  a 
complete  picture  of  the  undergraduate  life  of 
Harvard  College  as  it  was  when  Holmes  was  a 
student.  But  that  excellent  journal,  The  Har 
vard  Register,  (meteoric  in  its  brilliancy), 
brought  to  light  many  invaluable  reminis 
cences  of  life  at  Harvard  fifty  years  ago, 
and  we  shall  thankfully  avail  ourselves  of 
them  here.  And  first  a  word  about  college 
societies.  One  of  these,  to  which  Motley 
and  John  Osborne  Sargent  belonged,  was 
called  "The  Knights  of  the  Square  Table." 
In  1829  Holmes  was  Curator  "  Medicati 


84  OLIVER   WE  UDELL  HOLMES. 

Apparatus,"  in  the  waggish  club  called  the 
"Med.  Facs."  There  were  some  twenty 
burlesque  professors ;  Cornelius  C.  Felton 
being  Bugologiae  et  Cornucopialogiae  Pro 
fessor ;  Ezra  Stiles  Gannett,  Craniologiae 
Professor,  etc. 

The  first  meeting  of  the  year  was  held  in 
an  upper  room  in  Hollis,  which,  as  we  are 
informed  by  Mr.  Henry  Winthrop  Sargent, 
was  draped  in  black  cotton,  and  decorated 
with  death's-heads  and  cross-bones  in  chalk : 
a  table  also  hung  with  black  extended  length 
wise  through  the  room.  In  the  centre  on  a 
raised  seat  sat  the  Praeses,  and  on  either  side 
of  him  various  Professores  and  Professores 
Adjunct!,  clad  in  black,  and  wearing  the  flat 
Oxford  cap.  Near  at  hand  stood  two  gens- 
d'armes,  usually  the  two  strongest  men  in  the 
class,  entirely  clothed  in  flesh-colored  tights, 
the  oldest  holding  the  celebrated  club,  "  In- 
tonitans  Bolus,"  and  the  younger  the  smaller 
Bolus.  Upon  the  stairs  were  crowds  of 
Juniors,  from  whom  some  twenty  or  thirty 
were  to  be  initiated  into  the  society.  The 
initiation  consisted  either  in  answering  disa 
greeable  questions  put  by  the  Professores,  or 


HARVARD.  85 

in  doing  such  things  as  standing  on  your  head, 
crawling  about  the  floor  with  the  collar-bone 
of  an  ass  over  your  neck,  singing  Mother 
Goose  melodies,  or  making  an  oration  in  one 
of  the  dead  languages. 

Holmes  belonged  while  in  college  to  an 
other  small  temporary  association  called  the 
Jiawfityvot,  or  Notables.  (See  the  Life  of 
Benjamin  R.  Curtis,  by  George  T.  Curtis.) 
Another  member  of  this  little  debating 
society  was  William  Henry  Channing. 

According  to  the  Rev.  Cazncau  Palfrey, 
the  Hasty  Pudding  Club  then  met  at  the 
rooms  of  its  members.  Chairs  were  obtained 
from  neighboring  rooms,  and  the  pudding 
was  prepared  by  a  worthy  matron  of  the 
village,  who  was  familiarly  spoken  of  in  the 
club  as  Sister  Stimson,  and  was  regarded  as 
a  quasi  member  of  the  society. 

The  "providers"  of  the  evening  slung 
their  two  huge  pots  of  boiling  mush,  or 
porridge,  upon  a  stout  pole,  and  resting  the 
ends  thereof  upon  their  shoulders  mounted 
gallantly  to  the  room  where  the  members 
were  assembled,  —  often  in  the  third  or 
fourth  story.  Strange  to  say  there  is  no 


86  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

tradition  of  anybody  having  been  scalded 
to  death  while  engaged  in  this  perilous  feat. 
A  bowl  of  pudding  was  always  carried  as  a 
propitiatory  offering  to  the  officer  of  the 
entry  in  which  the  meeting  was  held,  and 
after  adjournment  the  occupants  of  neigh 
boring  rooms  were  invited  to  partake  of  the 
generous  abundance  of  pudding  that  still 
remained.* 

Of  course  there  were  the  usual  practical 
jokes  and  students'  pranks.  Hazing  in  a  mild 
form  was  in  vogue,  and  that  there  were  noc 
turnal  dccipcrcs  goes  without  saying.  Gen 
eral  H.  K.  Oliver,  in  his  hilarious  and  inimi 
table  style,  tells  of  "the  raiding-for,  the 
slaying,  the  unfeathering  (we  did  not  pause 
to  eviscerate),  the  roasting,  —  tied  to  a  string, 
and  twirled  before  an  open  fire,  at  No.  19 
Hollis  Hall, — and  the  festal  surfeit  over  the 
well-cooked  corpus  mortumn  of  a  proud  bird 
known  to  naturalists  as  the  Mclcagris  Gal- 
lopavo,  —  Anglic^  Gobbler  !  All  the  need- 

*  For  further  particulars  of  the  Club  see  "The  Har 
vard  Book,"  and  an  article  by  the  author  on  "  Under- 
praduate  Life  in  Harvard,"  published  in  The  Continent 
for  January  10,  1883. 


HARVARD.  S/ 

fuls  for  the  due  spread  of  the  table,  and  all 
fitting  condiments  were  ensconced  in  a  trap 
door-covered  box  beneath  the  floor,  the  artil 
lery  of  prying  eyes  of  proctors  wise  being 
foiled  by  a  barricade  of  blankets  so  effectual 
that  total  darkness  seemed  to  reign  within." 

It  was  justly  considered  a  great  affliction 
to  be  obliged  to  attend  prayers  before  day 
light  in  winter  in  a  bitterly  cold  room,  and 
many  tricks  were  played  by  the  students  to 
testify  their  repugnance. 

On  one  occasion  the  candles  were  slyly  cut 
and  pieces  of  lead  inserted  and  covered  over 
with  tallow  :  of  course  the  lights  went  out 
when  the  lead  was  reached.  On  another 
occasion  "pull-crackers"  were  fastened  to 
the  lids  of  the  Bible,  and  when  the  book  was 
opened  they  exploded  with  loud  reports. 
One  day  a  hog's  head  appeared  on  the  Bible, 
to  the  astonishment  and  horror  of  the  offici 
ating  clergyman. 

In  further  illustration  of  the  college  life  of 
those  days,  Dr.  A.  P.  Peabody  tells  us  of  the 
Spartan  simplicity  of  the  college  rooms,  ten 
dollars  being  a  fair  auction  price  for  the  fur 
niture  of  the  carpctlcss  studies.  The  fires 


88  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

were  of  wood,  and  were  lighted  by  flint,  steel, 
and  tinder-box.  "Almost  every  room  had, 
too,  among  its  transmittenda  a  cannon-ball, 
supposed  to  have  been  derived  from  the 
arsenal,  which  on  very  cold  days  was  heated 
to  a  red  heat,  and  placed  as  a  calorific  radiant 
on  some  extemporized  metallic  stand ;  while 
at  other  seasons  it  was  often  utilized  by  being 
rolled  down-stairs  at  such  time  as  might  most 
nearly  bisect  a  proctor's  night-sleep."  The 
only  conveyance  to  Boston  was  a  two-horse 
stage-coach,  which  ran  twice  each  day. 

A  great  institution  in  those  days  was  the 
Harvard  Washington  Corps,  or  college  mili 
tary  company,  for  which  the  State  lent  arms 
and  equipments.  There  were  so  few  college 
sports  then  —  no  base-ball,  no  cricket,  no 
boating,  no  gymnasium  —  that  the  corps 
attracted  great  attention.  The  brigade  band 
contained  twenty-eight  pieces.  The  uni 
form  consisted  of  the  prescribed  college 
dress,  which  was  dark  Oxford  mixed-gray 
single-breasted  coats,  with  three  crow's  feet 
on  the  sleeve  to  distinguish  a  Senior,  two  for 
a  Junior,  one  for  a  Sophomore,  and  none  for 
a  Freshman ;  the  skirts  of  the  coat  were 


HARVARD.  89 

cut  away  like  those  of  our  present  dress- 
coats,  White  cross-belts  were  worn  ;  and 
the  officers  had  felt  caps  with  black  leather 
visors  and  black  fountain  plumes:  they  also 
wore  gilt  buttons,  gold  epaulets,  white  trou 
sers,  white  sword-belt,  and  scarlet  silk  sash. 
The  motto  of  the  corps  was,  "  Tarn  Marti 
quam  Mercurio." 

One  of  the  dormitories  of  the  days  we  are 
speaking  of  was  an  old  three-story  wooden 
building  called  the  Devil's  Den,  which  stood 
just  south  of  the  spot  where  is  now  the  Uni 
tarian  Church.  Flutes  and  other  worldly 
musical  instruments  were  generally  repro 
bated  by  orthodox  clergymen,  and  General 
Henry  Kcmblc  Oliver  tells  us  that  he  used 
to  conceal  his  flute  beneath  his  feather-bed, 
his  father  having  forbidden  him  to  play  upon 
the  heathen  instrument.  The  Pierian  Sodal 
ity  was  in  existence,  and  there  was  excellent 
singing  by  the  college  choir.  Prayers  twice 
a  day,  —  in  winter  by  candle-light  in  a  cold 
room ;  two  services  on  Sunday ;  commons 
eaten  in  University  Hall,  which  then  had  a 
broad  piazza  in  front,  with  wide  steps  at  each 
end.  The  curriculum  and  ars  doccndi  were 


9O  OLIVER   W  EX  DELL  HOLMES. 

similar  to  the  same  in  an  old-fashioned  West 
ern  college  at  the  present  day,  and  the  feeling 
between  students  and  professors  was  one  of 
antagonism. 

A  good  recitation  story  is  told  by  General 
Oliver  of  Professor  Popkin  ("  old  Pop  ").  lie 
was  accustomed  to  call  up  the  lads  in  alpha 
betical  order.  "  But  somebody  had  amazed 
him  by  hinting  that  the  innocents  with  whom 
he  had  to  deal  might  possibly  be  in  the  habit 
of  counting  noses,  and  preparing  accordingly, 
as  was  the  lamentable  fact.  He  had,  on  a 
certain  day,  closed  recitation  with  the  W's, 
and  it  was  expected  that  he  would  next  begin 
with  the  A's  ;  and  therefore  some  twenty  A's, 
B's,  and  C's, — but  very  few  else, —  got 
'booked,'  the  fellows  at  the  tail  taking  it 
easy.  In  due  time  we  gathered  together  : 
the  good  man  came  in,  and  taking  his  seat, 
earnestly  gazed  awhile  (his  right  foot  over 
his  left  knee,  and  his  right  shin  rejoicing 
under  its  customary  manipulation)  at  Todd 
Adams.  Then  whisking  round  with  a  sudden 
jerk,  he  shrieked  out,  with  a  grim  and  mis 
chievous  chuckle,  '  Williams,  now  I've  got 
you  ! '  and  so  he  had.  A  roar  of  laughter  rent 


HARVARD.  gi 

the  room  ;  and  Williams,  with  sundry  other 
bankrupts  at  the  tail  end  of  the  division,  took 
the  '  deadest  of  screws.' ' 

In  the  year  1827,  while  in  college,  Holmes 
became  joint  author  with  John  Osborne  Sar 
gent  and  Park  Benjamin  of  a  little  volume, 
entitled  "  Poetical  Illustrations  of  the  Athe- 
nxum  Gallery  of  Paintings."  The  poems  are 
chiefly  satirical  in  cast.  In  the  copy  owned 
by  the  Athenaeum  Library  in  Boston,  the 
poem  called  "  The  Boy  with  the  Golden 
Locks  "  is  marked  in  pencil  with  the  name 
O.  VV.  Holmes  ;  the  boy  of  the  painting  was 
Samuel  Eliot,  and  the  artist  R.  Peale.  It  is 
stated  in  the  "Memorial  History  of  Boston" 
that  the  first  attempt  at  an  art  gallery  in 
Boston  was  made  in  1826,  when  a  collection 
of  casts  from  the  antique,  the  gift  of  Augustus 
Thorndike,  together  with  one  or  two  portraits 
of  benefactors  of  the  Athenaeum,  were  exhib 
ited  by  that  institution.  The  next  year 
(1827)  the  first  regular  exhibition  of  paintings 
and  sculpture  was  opened  to  the  public.  It 
curiously  marks  the  advance  made  in  enlight 
ened  views  of  women  when  we  are  told  by 
Miss  Sarah  Freeman  Clarke,  that  at  the  time 


92  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

this  exhibition  was  opened  "  a  joyous  whisper 
went  round  that  ladies  might  go  to  it  unat 
tended  by  gentlemen  ! " 

The  great  event  of  college  life  was  Com 
mencement  (Class  Day  as  yet  was  not,  that 
institution  coming  in  with  President  Quincy). 
The  festival  of  Commencement  resembled  a 
modern  fair.  Listen  to  this  description  of 
Dr.  Holmes :  — 

"  The  fair  plain  (the  Common),  not  then,  as 
now,  cut  up  into  cattle-pens  by  the  ugliest  of 
known  fences,  swarmed  with  the  j oyous  crowds. 
The  ginger-beer  carts  rang  their  bells  and 
popped  their  bottles,  the  fiddlers  played 
Money  Musk  over  and  over  and  over,  the 
sailors  danced  the  double-shuffle,  the  gentle 
men  of  the  city  capered  in  lusty  jigs,  the  town 
ladies  even  took  a  part  in  the  graceful  exer 
cise,  the  confectioners  rattled  red  and  white 
sugar-plums,  long  sticks  of  candy,  sugar  and 
burnt  almonds  into  their  brass  scales,  the 
wedges  of  pie  were  driven  into  splitting 
mouths,  the  mountains  of  (clove-besprinkled) 
hams  were  cut  down  as  Fort  Hill  is  being 
sliced  to-day;  the  hungry  feeders  sat  still  and 
concentrated  about  the  boards  where  the 


HARVARD.  93 

grosser  viands  were  served,  while  the  milk 
flowed  from  cracking  cocoanuts,  the  fragrant 
muskmelons  were  cloven  into  new-moon 
crescents,  and  the  great  watermelons  showed 
their  cool  pulps  sparkling  and  roseate  as  the 
dewy  fingers  of  Aurora." 

From  a  paper  styled  a  "  Sketch  in  Senti 
mental  Antiquarianism  "  (in  "The  Harvard 
Book  "),  written  by  our  genial  friend  John 
Holmes,  the  brother  of  the  poet,  we  obtain 
many  pleasant  glimpses  of  the  informal  and 
subordinate  features  of  Commencement  as  it 
appeared  fifty  or  sixty  years  ago.  A  day  or 
two  before  the  eventful  occasion,  spaces  for 
tents  were  measured  on  the  Common  by  the 
town  agent,  and  the  number  of  each  marked 
in  the  sod.  Everything  was  in  a  delightful 
tumult.  Old  friends  and  relatives  returned. 
"  On  Tuesday,  after  the  nearer  relatives  had 
arrived,  there  might  drop  in  at  evening  a  third 
cousin  of  a  wife's  half-brother  from  Agawam, 
or  an  uncle  of  a  brother-in-law's  step-sister 
from  Contoocook,  to  reknit  the  family  ties. 
The  runaway  apprentice,  who  was  ready  to 
condone  offences  and  accept  hospitality,  was 
referred  to  the  barn,  as  well  as  the  Indian 


94  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

from  Mr.  Wheelock's  Seminary,  whose  equip 
ment  was  an  Indian  catechism  and  a  bow  and 
arrow,  with  which  latter  he  expected  to  turn 
a  fugitive  penny  by  shooting  at  a  mark  on  the 
morrow."  ...  At  night,  "  if  any  villager 
awoke  from  troublous  dreams  of  pillage,  the 
sounds  from  the  Common  as  of  'armorers 
with  busy  hammers  closing  rivets  up,'  in  other 
words,  the  blows  of  shadowy  tent-builders, 
refreshed  his  moral  nature,  and  anon  he  sank 
pleasantly  into  festive  visions.  ...  At  Miss 
Chadbourne's,  the  numerous  lodgers  in  the 
garret  pensively  studied  by  the  light  of  the 
lantern  which  served  as  police  the  antiquities 
suspended  from  the  rafters,  or  stowed  under 
the  eaves.  The  disabled  spinning  wheel,  the 
old  bonnet  that  had  attended  Governor  Bel 
cher's  first  Commencement,  the  screen  with 
the  figures  of  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abed- 
nego,  that  had  been  placed  too  near  the  fire, 
—  these  and  other  articles  had  been  perused 
to  the  verge  of  desperation,  when  a  sudden 
blank  — and  lo  !  the  great  day  had  come." 

The  tents  were  upon  the  western  side  of 
the  college  yard,  and,  "  having  opposite  them 
various  stands  and  shows,  made  a  street 


HARVARD.  95 

which,  by  nightfall,  was  paved  with  water 
melon  rinds,  peach-stones,  and  various  debris, 
on  a  ground  of  straw,  —  all  flavored  with  rum 
and  tobacco-smoke.  The  atmosphere  thus 
created  in  the  interests  of  literature  was  to 
the  true  devotee  of  Commencement  what  the 
flavor  of  the  holocaust  was  to  the  pious  an 
cient."  In  the  afternoon  all  was  freedom  and 
gayety.  "  The  rough  village  doctor,  though 
witnessing  the  abominable  breach  of  hygienic 
law  everywhere,  felt  the  cheering  influence  of 
the  day,  and  his  old  mare  with  perplexity 
missed  half  her  usual  allowance  of  cowhide. 
The  dry,  sceptical  village  lawyer  returned 
from  dinner  at  Miss  Chadbourne's  to  his  dusty 
office  in  his  best  mood,  prepared  to  deny 
everything  advanced  by  anybody,  and  demand 
proof.  On  the  Common  the  Natick  Indians, 
having  made  large  gain  by  their  bows  and  ar 
rows,  proceeded  to  a  retired  spot,  and  silently 
and  successively  achieved  the  process  of  ine 
briation."  Such  were  some  of  the  features  of 
Commencement  at  Harvard  sixty  years  ago, 
and  such  were  probably  the  features  of  that 
particular  Commencement  Day  of  which  the 
Autocrat  has  written  the  following  :  — 


96  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

"  Tis  the  first  year  of  stern  *  Old  Hickory's  '  rule, 
When  our  good  Mother  lets  us  out  of  school, 
Half  glad,  half  sorrowing,  it  must  be  confessed, 
To  leave  her  quiet  lap,  her  bounteous  breast, 
Armed  with  our  dainty,  ribbon-tied  degrees, 
Pleased  and  yet  pensive,  exiles  and  A.  B.'s." 

For  a  year  after  leaving  college  Holmes 
studied  law  at  Harvard  under  Judge  Story 
and  Mr.  Ashmun  (1830).  At  the  end  of  that 
time  he  decided  to  abandon  the  study  of 
Blackstone  and  Chitty  for  medicine,  the  pro 
fession  of  his  grandfather,  David  Holmes  of 
Woodstock.  He  has  remarked  that  he  can 
hardly  say  what  induced  him  to  give  up  law 
for  medicine,  but  that  he  had  from  the  first 
regarded  his  legal  studies  as  an  experiment. 
He  has  also  said,  half  jocosely,  that  but  for 
the  seductive  attractions  of  college  journal 
ism,  he  might  have  applied  himself  with  more 
diligence  to  his  legal  studies,  and  carried  a 
green  bag  in  place  of  a  stethoscope  and  a 
thermometer  to  this  day. 

It  is  said  that  it  was  at  one  time  the  hope 
of  his  father  that  he  might  study  for  the  min 
istry,  and  it  is  thought  that  one  of  the  reasons 
why  he  was  sent  to  school  at  Andover  was 


HA  R  \'A  KD.  97 

that  he  might  acquire  a  liking  for  theology  in 
the  pious  atmosphere  of  that  place. 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  in  the  pulpit !  The 
very  idea  raises  a  merry  laugh,  and  we  seem 
to  see  a  congregation  of  upturned  faces,  each 
irradiated  by  the  broadest  of  grins.  And 
yet  there  is  a  good  deal  of  the  preacher  in 
Holmes :  his  essays  are  lay  sermons. 

His  first  taste  of  types  and  proof-sheets 
("  attack  of  author's  lead-poisoning,"  he  calls 
it)  he  got  while  studying  law.  To  the  six 
months'  college  periodical,  called  the  Col 
legian,  he  contributed  twenty-five  poems, 
some  of  which  are  retained  in  his  complete 
editions,  and  have  not  been  surpassed  by  his 
later  productions.  Certainly  he  has  written 
no  humorous  poems  more  irresistibly  droll 
than  "The  Dorchester  Giant,"  "  Evening  by 
a  Tailor,"  "The  Spectre  Pig,"  and  "The 
Height  of  the  Ridiculous."  That  the  edi 
tors  and  readers  of  the  Collegian  appreciated 
the  unique  merit  of  the  verses  is  evident  from 
the  fact  that  in  the  index  to  the  periodical  all 
of  Holmes'  pieces  are  indicated  by  an  asterisk. 
Perhaps  they  did  not  know  that  for  clear  and 
unstudied  humor,  a  sense  of  which  creeps 


98  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

slowly  and  delightfully  throughout  the  whole 
frame,  the  poems  of  their  young  contributor 
were  superior  to  those  of  Mood,  the  great 
humorist  of  that  day.  But  we  know  this 
now.  The  chief  editor  of  the  Collegian  was 
the  genial  John  Osborne  Sargent,  who  wrote 
bright  and  vivacious  prose  and  poetical  pieces 
under  the  nom  de plume  of  "  Charles  Sperry." 
William  H.  Simmons  was  "  Lockfast,"  and 
Theodore  W.  Snow  figured  as  "Geoffrey  la 
Touche."  Assistant  editors  or  regular  con 
tributors  were  Epes  Sargent  (brother  of  J.  O. 
Sargent),  Robert  Habersham,  Jr.,  of  Boston, 
and  Frederick  W.  Brune,  of  Baltimore. 

The  first  poem  of  Holmes  in  the  collection, 
probably  the  first  ever  published  by  him 
("Runaway  Ballads,"  February,  1830),  is  a 
serio-comic  piece  in  two  parts,  with  just  a 
spice  of  naughtiness  in  it,  to  be  generously 
overlooked  in  a  young  man  :  — 

I. 
"  Wake  from  thy  slumbers,  Isabel,  the  stars  are  in 

the  sky, 

And  night  has  hung  her  silver  lamp,  to  light  our 
altar  by ; 


HARVARD.  99 

The  flowers  have  closed  their  fading  leaves,  and 

droop  upon  the  plain, 
O  wake  thee,  and  their  dying  hues  shall  blush  to 

life  again." 

II. 

"  Get  up  !  get  up !  Miss  Polly  Jones,  the  tandem's 

at  the  door ; 
Get  up,  and  shake  your  lovely  bones,  it's  twelve 

o'clock  and  more  ; 
The  chaises   they  have   rattled  by,  and   nothing 

stirs  around, 
And  all  the  world  but  you  and  me  are  snoring 

safe  and  sound. 

I've  got  my  uncle's  bay,  and  trotting  Peggy,  too, 
I've  lined  their  tripes  with  oats  and  hay,'  and  now 

for  love  and  you  ; 
The  lash  is  curling  in  the  air,  and  I  am  at  your 

side, 
To-morrow   you  are   Mrs.  Snaggs,  my  bold  and 

blooming  bride." 

Another  poem  (like  the  foregoing,  never 
republished)  bears  the  title  "  Romance  ":  — 

"  O  !  she  was  a  maid  of  a  laughing  eye, 
And  she  lived  in  a  garret  cold  and  high ; 
And  he  was  a  threadbare  whiskered  beau, 
And  he  lived  in  a  cellar  damp  and  low." 


IOO  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

The  Collegian  had  been  preceded  in  the 
year  1827  by  The  Han'ard  Register  (the  first 
of  that  name),  which,  although  it  had  no  genius 
like  Holmes  on  its  staff,  was  yet  supported  in 
a  brilliant  manner  by  a  corps  of  contributors, 
many  of  whom  afterwards  became  famous. 
Among  these  were  C.  C.  Felton,  Robert  C. 
Winthrop,  C.  C.  Emerson,  Robert  Rantoul, 
George  S.  Hillard,  and  James  Freeman  Clarke, 
—  all  imclergrad nates  in  the  college.  It  is 
pleasant  to  see  the  Rev.  James  Freeman 
Clarke  in  the  role  of  a  humorous  writer,  — 
namely,  in  a  piece  entitled  "The  Miseries  of 
the  Spectacle  Family  ;  or,  the  Near-sighted." 
The  lurking  humor  which  has  always  charac 
terized  him  had,  very  appropriately,  a  livelier 
and  more  piquant  spirit  in  that  bright  heyday 
of  youth. 

It  was  about  1829  or  1830  that  Holmes 
wrote  his  stirring  lyric,  "  Old  Ironsides," — 
this  term  being  the  popular  nickname  for  the 
battle-ship  Constitution.  The  old  war  vessel 
appeared  in  Boston  harbor  on  the  Fourth  of 
July.  1828,  firing  a  salute  in  honor  of  the  day, 
and  also  firing  the  popular  heart  with  new  en 
thusiasm  for  herself.  In  turning  over  the  files 


HARVARD.  IOI 

of  the  Boston  Advertiser,  the  writer  found  the 
following  sentence  in  an  editorial  of  July  8, 
1828.  It  neatly  sums  up  the  popular  senti 
ment  concerning  the  old  ship:  "We  may 
safely  challenge  the  annals  of  the  world  to 
name  the  ship  that  has  done  so  much  to  fill 
the  measure  of  her  country's  glory."  It 
was  found  that  some  of  the  timbers  were  so 
unsound  that  it  was  proposed  by  the  govern 
ment  to  break  her  up.  Holmes  voiced  the 
protest  of  the  whole  land  in  his  poem  ;  the 
verses  ran  through  every  newspaper  in  the 
Union,  and  were  circulated  on  handbills  in 
Washington,  so  that  Mr.  Secretary  Branch, 
unwilling  to  incur  the  odium  of  carrying  out 
his  previous  intentions,  gave  orders  to  have 
the  ship  overhauled  and  repaired,  which  was 
accordingly  done.  The  curious  will  find  much 
entertaining  information  about  the  Constitu 
tion  in  Drake's  "  Old  Landmarks  of  Boston." 
Dr.  Holmes  tells  us  elsewhere  that  he  wrote 
the  poem,  "  Old  Ironsides,"  by  a  window  in 
the  white  chamber  of  the  Gambrel-roofed 
House,  "stans  pede  in  uno,  pretty  nearly." 
But  however  hastily  written,  it  is  certainly 
one  of  the  finest  patriotic  lyrics  in  the  Ian- 


102  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

guage,  and  thrills  the  heart  as  only  works  of 
the  highest  genius  can  do.  Standing,  as  it 
does,  at  the  portal  of  Dr.  Holmes'  complete 
poetical  works,  it  forms  a  most  spirited  in 
troduction  to  these.  The  genius  of  Holmes, 
like  that  of  Emerson,  seems  to  have  flowered 
out  at  once  into  vigorous  poetical  expression 
without  the  necessity  of  a  long  apprentice 
ship  to  the  art. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

PHYSICIAN   AND    PROFESSOR. 

FROM  the  autumn  of  1830  to  the  spring  of 
1833  Holmes  studied  medicine  in  Boston, 
his  instructors  being  Drs.  Channing,  Ware, 
Lewis,  Otis,  Jackson,  and  others.  For  Dr. 
James  Jackson  he  always  had  a  deep  attach 
ment,  and  has  repeatedly  written  about  him 
in  terms  of  affection  and  reverence.*  By  his 
marriage,  Dr.  Holmes  afterwards  became  the 
son-in-law  of  Dr.  Jackson's  brother.  The 
life  of  a  young  saw-bones  is  hardly  compat 
ible  with  the  cultivation  of  poetry.  There 
is  unfortunately,  but  undeniably,  something 

•  He  says  of  him  that,  "  while  he  studied  his  patients 
with  all  the  inquisitiveness  which  belongs  to  science, 
he  cared  for  every  individual  among  them  as  one  who 
thought  only  of  them  and  their  welfare.  Those  who 
enjoyed  the  privilege  of  his  teaching  would  bear  testi 
mony,  that  no  man  more  entirely  forgot  himself  in  his 
duties;  that  he  taught  them  to  rely  on  no  oracular 
authority,  but  to  look  the  facts  before  them  in  the  face; 
that  he  educated  them  for  knowledge  beyond  his  own; 
and  that,  while  they  recognized  in  him  a  master  of  his 

103 


104  OLIVER    WENDELL   HOLMES. 

hardening  and  materializing  (almost  animal- 
izing)  in  the  first  acquaintance  of  a  medical 
student  with  dissections,  and  in  the  investi 
gation  of  the  repulsive  diseases  of  the  human 
body.*  In  the  few  literary  productions  of 
Holmes  published  from  1830-33  we  seem  to 
find  traces  of  this  influence. 

In  the  New  England  Magazine  appeared 
about  this  time  the  poem,  "  My  Aunt,"  as 
well  as  some  boyish  prose  pieces,  one  de 
scribing  a  little  street  flirtation,  and  another 
being  a  bit  of  antiquarian  talk  on  books,  —  a 
topic  on  which  Dr.  Holmes  always  likes  fondly 
to  expatiate.  He  is  a  genuine  bibliophile,  and 
when  in  Europe  as  a  student  eagerly  indulged 
the  inherited  passion.  "  What  a  delight " 
(he  says  in  a  little-known  pamphlet)  "in 
the  pursuit  of  the  rarities-  which  the  eager 
book-hunter  follows  with  the  scent  of  a 


art,  they  left  him  with  minds  fully  open  to  new  convic 
tions  from  fresh  sources  of  truth." 

*  Dr.  Holmes  has  said  that  he  began  the  study  of 
medicine  as  most  young  men  do, — with  a  quickened 
pulse  at  sight  of  the  grinning  skeletons  of  the  school, 
and  with  his  cheeks  reflecting  the  whiteness  of  the  hos 
pital  sheets,  —  but  that  these  sights  soon  became  the 
merest  commonplace  to  him. 


PHYSICIAN  A  Sb  PROFESSOR.  IO$ 

beagle!  Shall  I  ever  forget  that  rainy  clay 
in  Lyons,  that  dingy  bookshop,  where  I  found 
the  Aetius,  long  missing  from  my  Artis  Me 
diae  Principes,  and  where  I  bought  for  a 
small  pecuniary  consideration,  though  it  was 
marked  rare,  and  was  really  trh  rare,  the 
Aphorisms  of  Hippocrates,  edited  by  and 
with  a  preface  from  the  hand  of  Francis 
Rabelais  ?  And  the  vellum-bound  Tulpius, 
which  I  came  upon  in  Venice,  afterwards  my 
only  reading  when  imprisoned  in  quarantine 
at  Marseilles,  so  that  the  two  hundred  and 
twenty-eight  cases  he  has  recorded  are,  many 
of  them,  to  this  day  still  fresh  in  my  memory. 
And  the  Schenckius,  —  the  folio  filled  with 
easus  rariorcs,  which  had  strayed  in  among 
the  rubbish  of  the  book-stall  on  the  boulevard, 
— and  the  noble  old  Vcsalius,  with  its  grand 
frontispiece  not  unworthy  of  Titian,  and  the 
fine  old  Ambroise  Pare*,  long  waited  for  even 
in  Paris  and  long  ago,  and  the  colossal  Spigc- 
lius  with  his  eviscerated  beauties,  and  Dutch 
Bidloo  with  its  miracles  of  fine  engraving 
and  bad  dissection,  and  Italian  Mascagni,  the 
despair  of  all  would-be  imitators,  and  pre- 
Adamite  John  de  Kctam,  and  antediluvian 


106  OLIVER    WENDELL   HOLMES. 

Bercngarius  Carpensis  —  but  why  multiply 
names,  every  one  of  which  brings  back  the 
accession  of  a  book  which  was  an  event 
almost  like  the  birth  of  an  infant  ? " 

In  1833,  before  sailing  for  Europe  to  pursue 
his  medical  studies  at  the  schools  and  hos 
pitals  of  Paris,  Holmes,  in  company  with  John 
Osborne  Sargent  and  Park  Benjamin,  put  out 
a  little  volume  called  "The  Harbinger  —  a 
May  Gift,  dedicated  to  the  ladies  who  have 
so  kindly  aided  the  New  England  Institution 
for  the  Education  of  the  Blind."  The  collec 
tion  was  made  at  the  suggestion  of  Dr. 
Samuel  G.  Howe,  and  was  for  sale  at  the  fair 
for  the  blind  got  up  in  Faneuil  Hall  under  the 
auspices  of  Mrs.  Harrison  Gray  Otis,  one  of 
the  most  brilliant  leaders  of  society  in  her 
day.  "  The  Harbinger  "  contains  five  or  six 
of  the  poems  of  Holmes  that  had  elsewhere 
been  published,  including  "  The  Ballad  of  the 
Oysterman." 

From  April,  1833,  to  October,  1835,  Holmes 
was  in  Europe,  most  of  the  time  in  Paris,  fol 
lowing  various  courses  at  the  6cole  de  Me"de- 
cine,  and  at  various  hospitals,  especially  at 
La  Pitie"  with  M.  Louis.  There  are  hints 


PHY  SIC  I  AX  AND  PROFESSOR.  IO/ 

here  and  there  in  his  writings  of  the  two  years 
in  Europe,  and  of  his  gay  but  not  dissipated 
life  in  Paris.  He  made  le  grand  tour,  but  was 
too  young  to  derive  such  benefit  from  the  art 
and  life  of  Europe  as  he  would  have  received 
later  in  life,  when  more  deeply  versed  in  the 
history  and  literature  of  the  Continent  and  of 
Great  Britain.  Boston  is  the  most  purely 
English  of  American  cities,  and  Holmes,  like 
a  true  Englishman,  remained  loyal,  while 
abroad,  to  the  kindred  points  of  heaven  and 
home.  He  has  never  taken  so  enthusias 
tically  to  objective  humanitarian  culture  (art, 
ethnology,  history,  etc.)  as  he  has  to  technical 
science  and  to  the  study  of  the  human  mind 
and  character  at  first  hand.  Boston  is  his 
idol,  to  Boston  he  has  addressed  all  his  writ 
ings,  and  Boston  it  would  seem  he  carried 
with  him  to  Europe. 

In  August,  1836,  after  his  return  from 
abroad,  Holmes  read  before  the  Phi  Beta 
Kappa  Society  his  long  poem  in  rhymed 
heroics,  styled  "  Poetry,  a  Metrical  Essay," 
and  designed  to  express  some  general  truths 
on  the  sources  and  the  machinery  of  poetry. 
It  was  the  first  of  many  read  before  the  same 
society :  — 


IO8  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

"  Scenes  of  my  youth  !  awake  its  slumbering  fire ! 
Ye  winds  of  Memory,  sweep  the  silent  lyre ! 

Long  have  I  wandered  ;  the  returning  tide 
Brought  back  an  exile  to  his  cradle's  side  ; 
And  as  my  bark  her  time-worn  flag  unrolled, 
To  greet  the  land-breeze  with  its  faded  fold, 
So,  in  remembrance  of  my  boyhood's  time, 
I  lift  these  ensigns  of  neglected  rhyme ; 
O   more   than   blest,    that,  all    my  wanderings 

through, 
My  anchor  falls  where  first  my  pennons  flew  !  " 

Mr.  George  Ticknor  Curtis  has  spoken  of 
the  delivery  of  the  poem  to  this  effect :  — 

"Dr.  Holmes  had  then  just  returned  from 
Europe.  Extremely  youthful  in  his  appear 
ance,  bubbling  over  with  the  mingled  humor 
and  pathos  that  have  always  marked  his 
poetry,  and  sparkling  with  coruscations  of  his 
peculiar  genius,  his  Phi  Beta  Kappa  poem  of 
1836,  delivered  with  a  clear,  ringing  enuncia 
tion,  which  imparted  to  the  hearers  his  own 
enjoyment  of  his  thoughts  and  expressions, 
delighted  a  cultivated  audience  to  a  very  un 
common  degree." 

A  writer  in  the  American  Monthly  Maga- 


PHYSIC! Ay  AXD  PKOFESSOR.  109 

sine  for  1837,  p.  73  (probably  Park  Benjamin, 
one  of  the  editors),  also  said  :  — 

"A  brilliant,  airy,  and  spirit  uelle  manner, 
varied  with  striking  flexibility  to  the  changing 
sentiment  of  the  poem,  —  now  deeply  impas 
sioned,  now  gayly  joyous  and  nonchalant,  and 
anon  springing  up  almost  into  an  actual  flight 
of  rhapsody,  —  rendered  the  delivery  of  this 
poem  a  rich,  nearly  a  dramatic,  entertain 
ment,  such  as  we  have  rarely  witnessed.  A 
grave,  learned,  and  most  intellectual  discourse 
by  Dr.  VVayland  of  Brown  University  formed 
the  solid  part  of  this  feast ;  and  when  this 
had  been  finished,  the  cloth  cleared,  and  the 
entremets  of  a  little  music  had  been  discussed, 
on  came  the  mellow  wine,  the  ingenious, 
heterogeneous  '  Trifle,'  the  fine-grained  crys 
tals  of  '  Ices,'  and  the  golden  fruit  of  a 
Dessert,  in  the  shape  of  this  beautiful  poem." 

In  the  same  year  Holmes  published  the 
first  collection  of  his  poems  (Boston  :  Otis, 
Broaders  &  Co.,  1836).  The  book  includes 
forty-five  poems  and  a  preface  of  seven  pages. 
The  preface  contains  a  defence  of  the  extrav 
agant,  or  hyperbolical,  in  poetry  :  — 

"The  extravagant  is  often  condemned  as 


IIO  OLIVER    WEXDELL  HOLMES. 

unnatural;  as  if  a  tendency  of  the  mind, 
shown  in  all  ages  and  forms,  had  not  its  foun 
dation  in  nature.  A  series  of  hyperbolical 
images  is  considered  beneath  criticism  by  the 
same  judges  who  would  write  treatises  upon 
the  sculptured  satyrs  and  painted  arabesques 
of  antiquity,  which  are  only  hyperbole  in 
stone  and  colors.  As  material  objects  in 
different  lights  repeat  themselves  in  shadows 
variously  elongated,  contracted,  or  exagger 
ated,  so  our  solid  and  sober  thoughts  carica 
ture  themselves  in  fantastic  shapes  insepar 
able  from  their  originals,  and  having  a  unity 
in  their  extravagance  which  proves  them  to 
have  retained  their  proportions  in  certain 
respects,  however  differing  in  outline  from 
their  prototypes." 

We  shall  consider  the  poems  of  the  volume 
in  another  chapter.  But  a  little  well-known 
anecdote  about  one  of  them  is  in  point  here. 
Abraham  Lincoln,  in  conversation  with  some 
one,  once  said :  "  There  are  some  quaint, 
queer  verses,  written,  I  think,  by  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes,  entitled  'The  Last  Leaf/ 
one  of  which  is  to  me  inexpressibly  touch 
ing."  He  then  repeated  the  poem  from 


PHYSICIAN  AND  PROFESSOR.  I  I  I 

memory,  and  as  he  finished  this  much  ad 
mired  stanza,  — 

"The  mossy  marbles  rest 
On  the  lips  that  he  has  prest 

In  their  bloom. 

And  the  names  he  loved  to  hear 
Have  been  carved  for  many  a  year 

On  the  tomb,"  — 

he  said:  "  For  pure  pathos,  in  my  judgment, 
there  is  nothing  finer  than  those  six  lines  in 
the  English  language."  (See  Appendix  to 
Lamon's  "  Lincoln.")  Poor  Lincoln  !  was  he 
thinking  of  that  lonely  grave  of  his  first  love 
far  away  in  Illinois  ?  "  Oh,  I  cannot  endure 
the  thought  of  her  lying  out  there  with  the 
storms  beating  upon  her,"  he  said.  There  is 
nothing  more  touching  in  the  annals  of  the 
heart  than  the  overwhelming  despair  and 
actual  and  long-continued  insanity  of  that 
noble  mind  over  the  death  of  the  first  idol 
of  his  soul. 

It  was  in  1836  also  that  Holmes  received 
his  degree  of  M.D.  from  Harvard  College, 
and  we  are  therefore  to  think  of  him  now  as 
a  young  practising  physician  of  Boston,  his 


112  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMEb. 

service  in  that  capacity  stretching  over  the 
years  1836-38  and  1840-47.  It  goes  with 
out  saying  that  a  young  man  with  the  finest 
medical  education  that  the  world  could  offer, 
related  to  "the  first  families"  of  Boston,  en 
gaging  in  manners,  and  popular  with  both 
sexes,  would  receive  a  warm  welcome  as  a 
practitioner,  and  undoubtedly  he  could  have 
built  up  a  still  greater  practice  than  he  did  if 
he  had  not  so  soon  entered  upon  the  career 
of  a  college  professor.  As  a  practitioner  he 
was,  or  eventually  became,  opposed  to  giving 
drugs  in  large  quantities,  unless  in  rare  cases. 
His  nature  made  it  easy  for  him  to  enter  a 
sick-room  with  a  bright,  cheerful  countenance 
so  as  to  inspire  hope  in  the  patient's  mind. 
In  his  writings  we  get  hints,  here  and  there, 
of  his  working  maxims,  one  of  which,  for  ex 
ample,  was  this  :  "  When  visiting  a  patient, 
enter  the  sick-room  at  once  without  keeping 
the  patient  in  the  torture  of  suspense  by 
discussing  the  case  with  others  in  another 
room." 

Boston,  then  a  place  of  about  sixty-five 
thousand  inhabitants,  had  still  somewhat  of  a 
semi-rural  air  with  its  quiet  streets,  old  lawns 


PHYSICIAN  AND  PROFESSOR.  113 

and  mansions,  and  stretches  of  green  landscape 
westward  from  the  city's  side.  The  literary 
centre  was  the  Old  Corner  Bookstore  on  Wash 
ington  Street,  and  the  young  lions  of  the  day 
were  George  Ticknor,  Edward  Everett,  Daniel 
Webster,  Sumner,  Howe,  Phillips,  and  others. 
Holmes  met  all  these  in  society,  as  well  as 
most  of  the  Tories  of  Beacon  Street,  for 
whose  company  he  has  always  had  a  fond 
ness,  or  weakness.  During  the  years  1835, 
1836,  and  1837  he  was  in  the  habit  of  spend 
ing  many  pleasant  hours  with  Motley  at  the 
house  of  Park  Benjamin,  No.  14  Temple  Place. 
Benjamin  had  been  an  old  college  friend,  and 
they  were  received  with  the  greatest  cor 
diality.  The  curious  antiquary  who  turns 
over  the  leaves  of  the  old  Knickerbocker 
magazines  will  find  there  many  poems  by 
Benjamin.  His  two  sisters,  at  the  time  of 
which  we  are  speaking,  were  in  the  bloom 
of  young  womanhood,  and  of  course  were  the 
cynosure  that  had  attracted  the  young  men. 
Mary  Benjamin  became  eventually  the  wife 
of  Motley,  and  her  sister  married  Motley's 
intimate  friend,  Mr.  J.  L.  Stackpole. 

In    1803   Ward   Nicholas    Boylston  estab- 


114  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

lished  in  Boston  a  fund,  the  income  of  which 
was  to  be  expended  in  prizes  for  medical  dis 
sertations.  In  1836-37  the  prizes  were  two 
medals  worth  fifty  dollars  each.  Dr.  Holmes 
gained  these  and  one  more,  making  three  out 
of  the  four  offered  in  two  successive  years. 
These  "Boylston  Prize  Dissertations,"  which 
were  published  in  book  form  in  1838,  are  fine 
scholarly  essays,  showing  thoroughness  of 
research  on  the  inductive  method.  Their 
value  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  iSSi, 
forty-three  years  after  their  publication,  the 
editor  of  the  Boston  Medical  and  Surgical 
Journal  advised  his  readers  to  peruse  Dr. 
Holmes'  Boylston  Prize  Essay  on  Intermit 
tent  Fever,  the  disease  having  recently  reap 
peared.  The  essay  is  also  very  freely  quoted 
in  Dr.  Adams'  paper  on  intermittent  fever, 
published  in  the  1881  report  of  the  Health 
Department  of  the  Massachusetts  Board  of 
Health,  Lunacy,  and  Charity. 

In  1838  Dr.  Holmes  was  appointed  Pro 
fessor  of  Anatomy  and  Physiology  in  Dart 
mouth  College,  New  Hampshire.  He  filled 
this  position  for  two  years,  having  for  asso 
ciate  professors  in  the  Medical  Faculty  Elisha 


PHYSIC  IAS  AXD  PKOFESSOR.  115 

Bartlett,  John  Dclamatcr,  Oliver  P.  Hubbarcl, 
Dixi  Crosby,  and  Stephen  W.  Williams. 

After  resigning  his  position  at  Dartmouth, 
Dr.  Holmes  returned  to  Boston,  and  on  the 
1 6th  of  June,  1840,  was  united  in  marriage  to 
Miss  Amelia  Lee  Jackson,  daughter  of  the 
Hon.  Charles  Jackson,  an  eminent  jurist  and 
judge  of  the  Massachusetts  Supreme  Court 
from  1813  to  1824.  Judge  Charles  Jackson 
was  a  brother  of  Dr.  James  Jackson,  the 
eminent  medical  author,  and  professor  in  the 
Harvard  Medical  School  for  many  years. 

The  first  residence  of  Holmes  after  his 
marriage  was  at  No.  8  Montgomery  Place, 
Boston,  a  little  court  leading  out  of  Trcmont 
Street,  near  Bromfield  Street.  In  that  house 
(at  the  left-hand  side  next  the  farther  corner) 
he  lived  for  nearly  twenty  years.  "  When  he 
entered  that  door,  two  shadows  glided  over 
the  threshold  ;  five  lingered  in  the  doorway 
when  he  passed  through  it  for  the  last  time, 
—  and  one  of  the  shadows  was  claimed  by  its 
owner  to  be  longer  than  his  own.  What 
changes  he  saw  in  that  quiet  place!  Death 
rained  through  every  roof  but  his ;  children 
came  into  life,  grew  into  maturity,  wedded, 


Il6  OLIVER    WE X DELL  HOLMES. 

faded  away,  threw  themselves  away ;  the 
whole  drama  of  life  was  played  in  that  stock- 
company's  theatre  of  a  dozen  houses,  one  of 
which  was  his,  and  no  deep  sorrow  or  severe 
calamity  ever  entered  his  dwelling.  Peace 
be  to  those  walls,  forever,  —  the  Professor 
said, — for  the  many  pleasant  years  he  has 
passed  within  them  !  " 

The  three  children  born  to  Dr.  Holmes 
in  Montgomery  Place  were  Oliver  Wendell 
(born  1841),  Amelia  Jackson,  and  Edward. 
The  daughter  is  now  Mrs.  John  Turner  Sar 
gent,  and  it  is  at  her  house  in  Beverly  Farms, 
near  Boston,  that  Professor  Holmes  has  passed 
his  summers  for  a  number  of  years.  Mr. 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  Jr.,  and  Mr.  Edward 
Holmes  are  both  lawyers,  —  the  former  well- 
known  for  his  legal  writings,  and  withal  so 
much  of  a  public  character,  and  so  beloved 
by  a  wide  circle  of  friends  for  sterling  quali 
ties  of  mind  and  heart,  that  one  may  be  par 
doned  a  few  references  to  his  life  and  work. 

He*  studied  as  a  boy  in  Boston  at  the 
school  of  Mr.  K.  S.  Dixwell,  whose  daughter, 
Miss  Fanny  Dixwell,  he  afterwards  married. 
In  April,  1861,  the  year  of  his  graduation 


PHYSICIAN  AND  PROFESSOR.  117 

from  Harvard  College,  he  joined  the  Fourth 
Battalion  of  Infantry,  Major  Thomas  G.  Ste 
venson,  then  at  Fort  Independence,  Boston 
Harbor,  where  he  wrote  the  poem  for  Class 
Day.  He  was  wounded  in  the  breast  in  the 
battle  of  Ball's  Bluff,*  and  received  a  wound  in 
the  neck  at  Antietam,  September  17,  1862, 
while  acting  as  captain  of  Company  G.  In  the 
Atlantic  Monthly  (m  1862  (p.  738)  Dr.  Holmes 
has  given  a  lively  account  of  his  "  Hunt  after 
the  Captain  "  on  this  occasion,  and  of  his 
journey  to  and  from  the  battle-field.  The 
piece  is  also  included  in  Dr.  Holmes'  "Sound 
ings  from  the  Atlantic."  We  could  ill  have 
spared  such  an  artless  and  feeling  chapter  in 
the  history  of  parental  love  as  that  paper 
forms.  The  yearning  of  parental  affection, 
delicately  revealed  in  those  pages,  is  a  better 
testimony  to  the  tender  and  beautiful  emo 
tional  nature  of  the  poet  than  the  encomiums 
of  a  thousand  friends  would  be.  On  his  re 
covery  Captain  Holmes  entered  the  service 
again,  and  received  the  commission  of  Lieu 
tenant-Colonel,  but  was  not  mustered  in  (the 

*  Sec  T.  W.  Hiffjrjnson's  Harvard  Memorial  Biogra 
phic*.  Vol.  II.  p.  478. 


Il8  OLIVER    WENDELL  HOLMES. 

regiment  being  too  much  reduced),  and  served 
as  aide-de-camp  to  Brigadier-General  H.  G. 
Wright,  during  General  Grant's  campaign  of 
1864.  In  1866  he  received  the  degree  of 
-LL.B.  from  Harvard  University,  and  became 
a  practising  lawyer  in  Boston.  He  has  taught 
and  lectured  on  Constitutional  Law  and  Juris 
prudence  in  Harvard  College.  He  had  at 
one  time  editorial  charge  of  the  American 
Law  Review.  To  the  editing  of  Chancellor 
James  Kent's  ''Commentaries  on  American 
Law"  (Boston:  Little,  Brown,  &  Co.,  1873, 
4  vols.),  he  devoted  three  years  of  steady 
labor,  and  produced  an  edition  of  Kent  which 
was  received  with  the  highest  praise  by 
jurists  and  lawyers.  He  has  also  published 
"The  Common  Law,"  and  written,  among 
other  papers,  the  biography  of  A.  Dehon  in 
the  Harvard  Memorial  Biographies.  In  1882 
Mr.  Holmes  was  appointed  Professor  in  the 
Harvard  Law  School,  and  served  in  that 
capacity  for  some  weeks,  when  he  resigned 
to  accept  an  appointment  as  Justice  in  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts. 

The  career  of  Dr.  Holmes  as  a  practising 
physician  drew  to  a  close  in  the  latter  part  of 


PHYSICIAN  ASD  PROFESSOR.  \  \g 

1847,  when  he  accepted  an  invitation  to  fill 
the  chair  of  Anatomy  and  Physiology  in  the 
Harvard  Medical  School,  a  position  which  he 
held  in  unbroken  continuity  from  that  date 
up  to  the  autumn  of  the  year  1882,  — a  period 
of  thirty-five  years.  He  continued  for  two 
years  after  his  appointment  to  act  as  a  physi 
cian,  but  in  1849  gave  up  general  practice 
altogether.  Of  his  introductory  lecture,  de 
livered  before  the  medical  students,  the  Bos 
ton  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal  (December, 
1847)  said  :  "The high  expectations  in  regard 
to  the  new  Professor  of  Anatomy  in  Harvard 
University  have  not  been  disappointed.  His 
introductory  lecture  is  the  best  discourse 
ever  delivered  in  the  Medical  School  of  Har 
vard  University."  It  is  a  singular  circum 
stance,  by  the  way,  that  only  three  persons 
in  a  century  have  held  the  chair  recently 
vacated  by  Professor  Holmes,  —  namely,  Dr. 
John  Warren,  his  son,  John  Collins  Warren, 
and,  lastly,  Dr.  Holmes.  For  many  years 
Holmes  delivered  four  lectures  each  week 
during  the  college  year.  Early  in  the  admin 
istration  of  President  Eliot  the  system  of 
instruction  was  expanded  by  the  division  of 


120  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLXES. 

the  Parkman  professorship  into  the  chair  of 
Anatomy  and  the  chair  of  Physiology,  Pro 
fessor  Holmes  retaining  the  former. 

The  Medical  School  was  removed  to  its 
present  site  at  the  foot  of  North  Grove  Street 
in  1846.  It  is  not  an  inviting  locality,  and 
the  interior  of  the  building  has  a  dilapidated, 
neglected,  "  old  particular,  brandy-punchy  " 
appearance.  The  anatomical  lecture-room  is 
a  deep  pit,  looking  something  like  a  ship's 
cabin  (barring  the  amphitheatre  of  seats). 
There  is  a  skylight,  there  are  anatomical 
charts,  and  skeletons  dangling  from  frames. 
The  present  writer  attended  one  of  the 
last  recitations  held  by  Professor  Holmes  in 
this  room.  As  the  instructor  entered  he  was 
received  with  applause,  —  proof  sufficient  of 
his  popularity.  The  tone  of  feeling  mani 
fested  by  the  students  was  one  of  mingled 
respect,  affection,  and  subdued  gayety,  —  a 
state  of  titillation  which  might  explode  at 
any  moment  in  a  laugh  ;  and  be  sure  that 
laughs  were  not  infrequent  at  every  lecture 
or  recitation.  After  examining  and  testing 
two  prepared  specimens  of  nerve-fibre  and 
nerve-cell,  the  Professor  passed  them  around 


PHYSICIAN  AND  PROFESSOR.  121 

for  inspection,  they  having  been  mounted  in 
two  of  the  convenient  microscopes  (with 
lamp  attachment)  devised  by  himself  for  class 
use.  While  the  microscopes  are  passing 
around,  the  human  scapula,  or  shoulder-bone, 
is  taken  up  and  questions  asked  about  it  in 
quick,  decisive  tones.  At  the  anatomical 
blunders  of  the  young  saw-bones  a  laugh  goes 
round  ;  the  eyes  of  the  doctor  twinkle,  and  a 
kindly,  mirth-provoking  expression  lights  up 
his  whole  face  while  he  looks  not  always  at, 
but  away  from  the  student  whom  he  is  ques 
tioning  :  — 

Professor.  —  "  Smith  !  Here  take  the  bone ! 
What  is  the  reason  that  the  thigh-socket  is 
so  much  deeper  than  the  arm-socket  ? " 

Student  does  not  seem  clear  on  the  point. 

Professor. — "Because  upon  the  leg  rests 
the  entire  weight  of  the  body,  and  it  does  not 
need  much  range  of  movement  ;  but  the  arm 
requires  to  be  moved  in  every  direction,  as, 
for  example,  in  knocking  a  man  down,  thus, 
or  in  the  oratorical  gesture  "  (both  gestures 
being  gracefully  exemplified). 

A  general  and  hearty  laugh  by  the  class 
ensues,  and  the  bone  is  passed  on  to  the  next 
man. 


122  OLIVER    WENDELL  HOLMES. 

Dr.  Holmes'  instruction  was  usually  given 
in  the  shape  of  extemporaneous  lectures,  illus 
trated  by  diagrams,  microscopical  preparations, 
models,  etc.  In  some  cases  written  lectures 
were  prepared  by  him.  For  the  purpose  of 
making  the  young  men  acquainted  with  na 
ture  at  first  hand,  he  provided  for  them  ten 
skeletons,  each  of  which  was  divided  into  six 
parts,  placed  in  boxes  with  handles  and  slid 
ing  covers.  By  taking  these  boxes  to  his 
room  the  student  was  enabled  to  study  oste 
ology  to  the  best  effect,  i.  c.y  by  actual  hand 
ling  of  the  objects  studied. 

Speaking  at  a  certain  anniversary  meeting 
of  Dr.  Holmes'  power  as  a  specialist,  Presi 
dent  Eliot,  of  Harvard,  said  :  — 

"Most  of  you  have  perhaps  the  impression 
that  Dr.  Holmes  chiefly  enjoys  a  beautiful 
couplet,  a  beautiful  verse,  an  elegant  sen 
tence.  It  has  fallen  to  me  to  observe  that  he 
has  other  great  enjoyments.  I  never  heard 
any  mortal  exhibit  such  enthusiasm  over  an 
elegant  dissection.  ...  It  is  his  to  know 
with  absolute  precision  the  form  of  every 
bone  in  this  wonderful  body  of  ours,  the 
course  of  every  artery  and  vein,  of  every 


PHYSIC/AS  AXD  PRO  FES  SOB.  123 

nerve,  the  form  and  function  of  every  mus 
cle,  and  not  only  to  know  it,  but  to  describe 
it  with  a  fascinating  precision  and  enthu 
siasm." 

By  way  of  pleasant  relief  and  contrast  to 
urban  matters,  we  are  now  to  turn  our  atten 
tion  to  the  enchanting  Berkshire  region,  the 
"  Switzerland  of  New  England,"  where,  in  his 
Pittsfield  residence  of  Canoe  Place  (so  called 
by  him  in  allusion  to  the  mark  on  the  ancient 
Indian  deed  of  the  estate),  Dr.  Holmes  passed 
seven  happy  summer  vacations,  which,  he 
says,  stand  in  his  memory  like  seven  golden 
candlesticks  seen  in  the  beatific  vision  of  the 
holy  dreamer.  His  Pittsfield  farm  inured  to 
Dr.  Holmes  through  his  mother,  whose  grand 
father,  Jacob  Wendell,  bought,  in  1/35,  the 
entire  township  of  Pontoosuc,  containing 
twenty-four  thousand  acres.  From  the  house 
a  noble  prospect  was  to  be  seen,  including 
the  winding  river  below  and  the  distant  hills 
and  mountains.  Near  neighbors  of  the  poet 
were  the  traveller  and  novelist,  Herman  Mel 
ville,  and  the  novelist,  G.  P.  R.  James;  not 
far  to  the  south,  in  the  Lenox  region,  were 
Miss  Sedgwick  and  Miss  Fanny  Kemble,  and 


124  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

also,  for  a  short  time,  Hawthorne.  The  praises 
of  the  Berkshire  region  have  often  been  sung 
and  spoken,  and  will  be  so  spoken  and  sung 
as  long  as  the  sentiment  of  beauty  exists  in 
human  minds :  a  height  of  twelve  hundred 
feet  above  the  sea ;  no  mosquitoes ;  air  pure 
and  cool  as  "  frozen  dew  poured  from  a  silver 
vase";  the  sun-garden  of  the  titanic  azure 
hills,  far  billowing ;  the  sod-plush  of  the 
mountains  a  tangle  of  hardy  flowers  and 
beautiful  wayside  weeds  and  crispy  sedge  and 
moss;  the  gold-vapor  of  sunset  topping  the 
soft,  distant  violet  and  indigo  tints  of  the 
hills ;  the  wine-colored  brooks  humming  old 
tunes  and  flashing  white  curls  to  the  sun  as 
they  hurry  down  the  mountain  sides  (Oh,  the 
joyous  Arcadian  life  of  those  pastoral  moun 
tains  ! )  ;  the  huckleberry  pastures,  inter- 
sprinkled  with  sweet-scented  bayberry  and 
the  high-bush  blackberry ;  the  barberries 
with  their  "bright-red  coral  pendants";  the 
steeple-top,  pussy-willow,  yarrow,  tanzy,  the 
white-flowered  indian  sage,  the  yellow  ele 
campane,  mouse-ear,  crane-bill,  gentian,  wild 
caraway,  sweet  fern,  mountain  mint ;  and, 
in  the  woods,  white  scented  violets,  the 


PHYSICIAN  AXD  PROFESSOR.  12$ 

dark-stemmed  maiden-hair,  the  swamp  cab 
bage,  birches,  alders,  hemlocks,  and  maples. 
A  vast  table-land  of  dim-blue  hills,  hung 
out  in  immensity  like  an  exhalation  or  a 
dream,  —  this  is  the  poetical  view  of  it.  A 
mighty  fine  milk  country,  —  the  practical 
view.  By  the  way,  we  had  almost  forgotten 
to  pay  our  respects  to  those  arbutus  flowers 
of  Berkshire,  —  the  Goodale  sisters  of  South 
Egremont.  Miss  Elaine's  pretty  "Journal 
of  a  Farmer's  Daughter  "  will  help  to  fill  out 
the  picture  of  Berkshire  scenery  for  those  who 
are  interested  therein. 

In  1852  Dr.  Holmes  delivered,  in  various 
cities,  a  course  of  lectures  on  the  "  English 
Poets  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,"  -Words 
worth,  Moore,  Keats,  Shelley,  and  others. 

14  The  style,"  says  Duyckinck,  "  was  precise 
and  animated  ;  the  illustrations  sharp  and 
cleanly  cut.  In  the  criticism  there  was  a  lean 
ing  rather  to  the  bold  and  dashing  bravura  of 
Scott  and  Byron  than  to  the  calm,  philo 
sophical  mood  of  Wordsworth.  Where  there 
was  any  game  on  the  wing,  when  the  '  servile 
herd  '  of  imitators  and  poetasters  came  in  view, 
they  were  dropped  at  once  by  a  felicitous 


126  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

shot.  Each  lecture  closed  with  a  copy  of 
verses,  humorous  or  sentimental,  growing  out 
of  the  prevalent  mood  of  the  hour's  discus 
sion." 

As  a  lecturer  Holmes  was  much  in  demand, 
and  for  a  half-dozen  years  or  so  he  travelled  a 
great  deal  in  this  capacity.  The  reader  will 
find  some  humorous  remarks  on  the  subject 
in  the  "Autocrat." 

About  the  year  1856  Dr.  Holmes  thus 
defined  his  lecturing  terms  in  a  letter  to  a 
certain  official  :  — 

"  My  terms  for  a  lecture,  when  I  stay  over 
night,  are  fifteen  dollars  and  expenses,  a  room 
with  a  fire  in  it,  in  a  public  house,  and  a  mat 
tress  to  sleep  on,  —  not  a  feather-bed.  As 
you  write  in  your  individual  capacity,  I  tell 
you  at  once  all  my  habitual  exigencies.  I  am 
afraid  to  sleep  in  a  cold  room  ;  I  can't  sleep 
on  a  feather-bed  ;  I  will  not  go  to  private 
houses  ;  and  I  have  fixed  upon  the  sum  men 
tioned  as  what  it  is  worth  for  me  to  go  away 
for  the  night  to  places  that  cannot  pay  more." 

Fifteen  dollars ! 

The  Autocrat's  landlady,  too,  delivers  her 
self  as  follows  on  this  subject  :  — 


PHYSIC  I  AX  AXD  PROFESSOR.  I2/ 

"  He  was  a  man  that  loved  to  stick  round 
home  as  much  as  any  cat  you  ever  see  in  your 
life.  He  used  to  say  he'd  as  lief  have  a  tooth 
pulled  as  go  away  anywheres.  Always  got 
sick,  he  said,  when  he  went  away,  and  never 
sick  when  he  didn't.  Pretty  nigh  killed  him 
self  goin'  about  lecterin'  two  or  three  winters, 
—  talkin'  in  cold  country  lyceums, — as  he  used 
to  say,  —  goin'  home  to  cold  parlors  and  bein* 
treated  to  cold  apples  and  cold  water ;  and  then 
goin'  up  into  a  cold  bed  in  a  cold  chamber,  and 
comin'  home  next  mornin'  with  a  cold  in  his 
head  as  bad  as  the  horse  distemper.  Then 
he'd  look  kind  of  sorry  for  havin*  said  it,  and 
tell  how  kind  some  of  the  good  women  was 
to  him,  —  how  one  spread  an  cdderdown  com 
forter  for  him,  and  another  fixed  up  somethin' 
hot  for  him  after  the  lecter,  and  another  one 
said,  '  There  now,  you  smoke  that  cigar  of 
yours  after  the  lecter  just  as  if  you  was  at 
home,'  — and  if  they'd  all  been  like  that,  he'd 
have  gone  on  lecterin'  forever,  but  as  it  was, 
he  got  pooty  nigh  enough  of  it,  and  preferred 
nateral  death  to  puttin'  himself  out  of  the 
world  by  such  violent  means  as  lecterin." 


CHAPTER   V. 
THE  AUTOCRAT  OF  THE  BREAKFAST-TABLE. 

BOSTON,  —  city  of  the  brown  loaf,  and  the 
marrow-searching  icy  winds  ;  city  of  the  brave 
heart  and  powerful  hand ;  city  beloved  of 
freedom, 

"  Hie  illius  arma, 
Hie  currus ;  " 

city  whirling  through  space  with  bright  golden 
dome  and  streaming  starry  flags  ; 

"  Peace,  Freedom,  Wealth  !  no  fairer  view, 
Though  with  the  wild  bird's  restless  wings 
We  sailed  beneath  the  noontide's  blue 
Or  chased  the  moonlight's  endless  rings !  " 

—  Holmes. 

What  Addison  and  Steele  were  to  the  Lon 
don  of  their  day  ;  what  Lamb  and  Hazlitt 
were  to  the  same  city  at  a  later  date ;  what 
De  Quincey,  North,  and  Jeffrey  were  to  dun 
Edin  of  Scotland,  —  that  Holmes  and  the 
Atlantic  Monthly  coterie  of  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
128 


THE  AUTOCRAT. 

tury  ago  were  to  Boston.  The  streets  of 
London  were  not  more  loved  by  Johnson 
and  Lamb  than  those  of  Boston  have  been 
by  Holmes.  A  perfect  thing  in  its  kind 
is  always  admirable.  Hence  to  the  au 
tocrat  and  laureate  of  Boston,  to  Holmes 
the  consummate,  the  most  perfect  and  de 
lightful  oppidan,  richest  distillation  of  the  old 
Puritan  strain  of  blood,  master  at  will  of 
smiles  or  tears,  —  to  him  we  are  constrained 
to  yield  our  homage.  He  has  only  made 
short  swallow-flights  beyond  the  limits  of  his 
beloved  city.  If  he  goes  to  Paris,  he  carries 
Boston  with  him  ;  if  he  goes  to  New  York  or 
Philadelphia,  he  only  sighs  and  compares 
them  with  Boston  to  their  disadvantage,  and 
gets  back  as  quick  as  he  can  to  the  hub  of 
the  solar  system.  A  barnacle  is  not  more 
closely  identified  with  its  rock,  or  a  pearl  with 
its  oyster,  than  Holmes  is  with  St.  Botolph's 
town.  All  his  books  might  be  labelled  "  Talks 
with  my  Neighbors,"  and  this  very  provin 
cialism,  or  urban  patriotism,  forms  their  chief 
charm. 

What  then  is  Boston  ?     What  is  the  typical 
New  Englander  ?     He  is  above  all  things  a 


130  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

person  of  almost  pure  and  unmixed  English 
blood  ;  he  is  a  proud  English  squire,  unmel- 
lowed,  exacerbated,  and  aestheticized  by 
change  of  climate  ;  for  juicy  mutton,  split 
codfish  ;  for  the  delicate  and  soothing  air  of 
the  Gulf  Stream,  the  icy  winds  of  Labrador  ; 
for  the  sweet  hawthorn  hedge,  the  boulder 
fence ;  for  fat  haunches  of  turf  peppered 
with  buttercups  and  daisies,  a  soil  that 
scarcely  hides  the  granite.  The  Bostonian  is 
simply  an  Americanized  Englishman.  Hence 
his  hauteur  and  gigantic  egotism.  As  the 
Englishman  is  the  physical  bully  of  the  world, 
so  the  Bostonian  is  the  aesthetic  and  intellect 
ual  bully  of  America ;  underneath  the  high 
polish  of  consummate  manners  (the  Pheidian 
faces  finished  with  a  hair-pencil,  the  animal 
faultlessly  encased)  there  lurk  the  stony 
glare  of  self-aggrandizement,  the  icy  compla 
cency  of  ancestral  pride  (odiprofanum  vulgns), 
the  dc  haut  en  has  air  of  an  intellectual  and 
social  aristocracy  well  ballasted  by  the 
weighty  annals  of  the  past.  Boston  idealizes 
itself  in  its  artists'  attliers,  enjoys  artificial 
aesthetic  aspiration  in  its  wealthy  ecclesias 
tical  clubs,  sublimates  its  emotions  in  Music 


THE  AUTOCRAT.  131 

Hall,  martyrs  its  comfort  with  the  arid  inani 
ties  of  drawing-room  receptions,  speculates  in 
its  granite  exchanges,  intellectualizes  New 
England  with  its  pale  cast  of  thought,  and,  in 
the  intervals,  subjects  the  universe  in  general 
to  the  remorseless  inspection  of  its  critical 
eye-glass. 

Ten  years  of  refrigeration  and  camphora- 
tion,  two  lustrums  of  severe  study,  are  hardly 
too  much  for  you,  O  sunny-hearted  child 
of  the  South  or  West,  if  you  would  hope  to 
pass  unscathed  the  gauntlet  of  eyes,  and 
move  unterrified  in  the  social  circles  of  the 
Puritan  capital.  But  be  sure  to  persevere  ; 
beware  of  a  precipitate  judgment  and  flight ; 
for  you  will  soon  find  that  "the  old  red-running 
blood"  is  in  the  arteries  of  the  New  Eng- 
lander  too,  the  old  warm  human  heart  and 
tender  compassion.  Only  wait,  and  you  shall 
find  yourself  possessed  of  a  warm  affection  for 
the  gallant  city,  solidly  seated  there  on  its 
storied  hill,  —  distinguished  in  its  manners, 
profuse  in  its  philanthropies,  splendid  in  its 
patriotism,  and  a  model  of  excellence  in  its 
highly  organized  corporate  life.  In  what 
other  American  city  as  yet  is  materiality,  the 


132  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

grossness  of  life,  properly  subordinated  to  the 
intellectual  or  ideal?  Look,  e.g.,  at  these 
blooming  young  women  and  these  silver-haired 
matrons  coming  out  of  one  of  their  clubs  on 
Park  Street ;  observe  the  mingling  of  gracious- 
ness  and  French  delicatesse  of  manners  with 
austere  sweetness,  firm  will,  transparent  inno 
cence,  and  energetic  carriage  and  action  ;  out 
wardly,  snow  and  roses  on  a  porcelain  vase ; 
inwardly,  aflame  with  ideal  aspiration,  and 
busied  with  noble  chanties  and  humanitarian 
reforms.  There  are  plenty  of  European 
cities  dominated  even  more  than  Boston  by 
the  spirit  of  idealism  ;  but  there  is  no  other 
spot  on  the  globe  where  women  hold  so  high 
a  position  ;  —  and  the  status  of  woman  in  a 
society  is  the  most  delicate  test  of  its  civili 
zation. 

In  the  midst  of  this  homogeneous  and  cul 
tured  community  the  Atlantic  Monthly  maga 
zine  one  day,  in  November,  1857,  spread  out 
a  literary  feast,*  and  at  the  head  of  its  table 

*  In  the  same  number  of  the  magazine,  and  just  pre 
ceding  the  first  instalment  of  the  "  Autocrat, "appeared 
a  cluster  of  Emerson's  philosophical  poems,  including 
the  famous  "Brahma." 


THE  AUTOCRAT.  133 

appeared  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  ver 
satile  conversationalists  of  modern  times,  — 
the  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast-Table,  one 
who  "invented  a  new  kind  in  literature," — a 
combination  of  poetry,  psychical  introspection, 
and  practical  philosophy,  irradiated  by  deli- 
cate^wit,  gay  humor,  and  irresistible  drollery. 
A  periodical  magazine  is  just  the  kind  of 
medium  suited  to  a  conversationalist.  He  is 
sure  of  a  wide  group  of  sympathetic  listeners, 
whom  he  can  address  in  a  familiar,  colloquial 
style,  and  have  his  words  reach  them  while 
still  warm  from  his  lips.  The  "  Autocrat " 
papers  created  a  lively  sensation.  "  The  reader 
of  the  Atlantic"  says  Mr.  Francis  H.  Under 
wood,  "  always  turned  to  the  'Autocrat '  first. 
This  was  proven  after  the  first  number  by 
the  notices  of  the  press.  Very  odd  most  of 
the  early  notices  were.  The  good,  sedate 
critics  did  not  know  what  to  make  of  the 
thing.  Some  thought  it  undignified.  Others 
professed  to  be  more  confirmed  in  their  opin 
ion  that  Holmes  was  only  an  inordinate 
egotist.  The  suckling  reviewer  undertook  to 
put  the  puns  under  his  microscope  for  analy 
sis.  The  solemn  purist  lamented  the  ten- 


134  OLIVER    WENDELL  HOLMES. 

dency  to  slang ;  and  while  he  admitted  the 
brilliancy  of  the  poems  that  were  interspersed, 
he  thought  they  showed  as  ill  as  diamonds 
among  the  spangles  of  the  court  fool." 

But  before  discussing  the  "  Autocrat " 
papers  any  further  let  us  recall  the  circum 
stances  connected  with  the  founding  of  the 
Atlantic  MontJily.  Its  establishment  was  due 
to  the  then  vigorous  publishing  firm  of  Phillips 
&  Sampson.  Mr.  Phillips  was  especially  active 
and  sanguine  in  promoting  the  enterprise. 
One  of  the  objects  of  the  magazine  was 
to  give  aid  and  countenance  to  the  anti- 
slavery  cause.  The  financial  outlook  at 
that  time  was  hardly  such  as  to  promise 
success  to  the  new  enterprise,  and  the 
wiseacres  shook  their  heads  over  it,  fore 
boding  its  early  collapse.  And  in  truth  it 
did  have  a  hard  struggle  for  existence, 
and  many  thousand  dollars  of  capital  were 
thrown  overboard  in  the  effort  to  keep  the 
ship  afloat.  It  is  thought  that  but  for  the 
prestige  which  the  "Autocrat"  papers  gave, 
the  concern  would  inevitably  have  gone  to 
pieces. 

The  first  editor  was  James  Russell  Lowell, 


THE  AUTOCRAT.  135 

who  was  nominated  by  Mr.  Francis  H.  Under 
wood.  Mr.  Lowell  thought  that  Dr.  Holmes 
would  have  been  the  better  choice,  and  ex 
pressed  the  conviction  that  he  (Holmes) 
would  do  great  things,  and  make  himself  felt 
as  a  new  force  in  literature.  This  well- 
fufilled  prediction  must  have  been  chiefly 
based  on  Mr.  Lowell's  acquaintance  with  the 
rich  and  brilliant  conversation  and  poetry  of 
Holmes,  for  he  had  as  yet  done  nothing  great 
in  the  way  of  prose,  with  the  exception  of  his 
(still  unpublished)  Lectures  on  the  "  English 
Poets  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,"  which 
were  first  delivered  before  the  Lowell  Insti 
tute  in  Boston  in  1852. 

The  name  of  the  magazine  was  suggested 
by  Dr.  Holmes.  The  founders,  or  first  corps 
of  contributors,  included  Longfellow,  Emer 
son,  Holmes,  Motley,  Charles  Eliot  Norton, 
Edmund  Quincy,  J.  Elliot  Cabot,  Francis  H. 
Underwood,  and  others,  —  fourteen  in  all. 
According  to  a  statement  of  one  of  the  found 
ers,  the  magazine  was  born  in  Cambridge 
at  Porter's  Tavern  on  North  Avenue,  an 
old  inn  famous  for  its  cuisine  and  its  punch 
since  half  a  century.  Not  that  our  staid  Puri- 


136  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

tan  divines  and  essayists  ever  indulged  in 
such  drinking  as  did  their  predecessors  at 
Ambrose's  in  Gabriel's  Road.  But  be  sure 
that  "the  old  man  of  the  lion  heart  and  the 
sceptre  crutch  "  (Kit  North),  supported  by 
Ensign  Odoherty  and  the  Ettrick  Shepherd, 
never  delivered  a  steadier  fire  of  crackling 
jests  than  shot  back  and  forth  over  the  glit 
tering  table  at  Porter's  or  at  Parker's  when 
such  wits  as  Holmes  and  Lowell  sat  opposite 
to  each  other  :  — 

"  Such  jests,  that,  drained  of  every  joke, 
The  very  bank  of  language  broke,  — 
Such  deeds  that  Laughter  nearly  died 
With  stitches  in  his  belted  side ; 
While  Time,  caught  fast  in  pleasure's  chain, 
His  double  goblet  snapped  in  twain, 
And  stood  with  half  in  either  hand,  — 
Both  brimming  full,  —  but  not  of  sand  ! " 

—  Holmes. 

To  Mr.  F.  H.  Underwood  in  Seribners  Mag 
azine  we  are  indebted  for  the  following  bril 
liant  bit  of  reminiscence  of  these  early  Atlan 
tic  dinners,  associated  with  the  founding  and 
first  days  of  the  magazine  :  "  The  sparkle  of 
the  after-dinner  talk  was  incommunicable,  - 


THE  AUTOCRAT.  137 

not  in  the  least  studied,  but  natural  and 
exuberant.  The  absolute  loss  of  those  con 
versations  and  encounters  of  wit,  when  Em 
erson,  Longfellow,  Holmes,  Lowell,  and 
others  sat  about  the  board,  is  greatly  to  be 
regretted.  Judge  Hoar,  who  inherits  the  wit 
of  Roger  Sherman,  bore  his  full  part.  Lowell 
probably  uttered  more  elaborate  sentences, 
—  glowing  with  new-born  images  ;  Holmes 
made  the  simplest  play  and  scored  most 
points,  both  serious  and  comic.  Meanwhile 
Emerson's  wise  face  was  lighted  by  a  mi 
raculous  smile  that  would  have  been  the 
delight  and  despair  of  a  painter ;  and  in  the 
end  he  took  the  thought  which  the  others 
were  playing  hocky  with,  and  calmly  set  it  in 
an  apothegm  of  crystal  beauty. 

"The  'Atlantic'  Club  at  times  was  ambu 
latory,  although  it  generally  met  at  Parker's. 
Once  or  twice  it  dined  at  Point  Shirley  with 
Taft,  who  \sfacile  rex  of  our  sea-board.  Once 
it  dined  at  a  little  restaurant  in  Winter  Place, 
kept  by  a  man  of  versatile  genius,  M.  Fon- 
tarive,  the  first  of  the  French  cooks  of  the 
time.  Once  it  met  at  Zach.  Porter's  in  North 
Cambridge,  — not  a  hotel,  but  an  old-fashioned 


138  -OLIVER    WENDELL   HOLMES. 

tavern.  The  cooking  was  marvellous,  and  was 
done  under  the  landlord's  eye.  His  creed 
was  that  of  Ezra  Weeks  of  the  Eagle  Inn  :  — 

"  *  Nothin'  riles  me,  I  pledge  my  fastin'  word, 
Like  cookin'  out  the  natur'  of  a  bird.' 

"The  ducks  were  brought  in  and  carved  by 
Porter  himself,  as  a  mark  of  consideration  to 
the  distinguished  guests.  The  knife  was 
keen,  and  was  wielded  by  a  deft  hand  ;  the 
slices  fell  about  the  platter  like  a  mower's 
swath  until  the  carcass  was  bare  as  a  barrel. 

"  '  What  do  you  do  with  the  bird  after  that  ? ' 
Lowell  asked  of  the  landlord. 

"  '  Wai,'  said  Porter,  with  a  curious  twinkle 
in  his  eyes,  'when  I've  sliced  off  the  breast, 
an'  the  wings,  an'  legs  like  that'  (pointing  to 
the  shell),  '  I  gin'rally  give  the  carkess  to  the 
poor.' 

"Dr.  Palmer,  whose  East  Indian  sketches 
had  just  been  published  and  greatly  admired, 
was  a  special  guest  on  this  occasion ;  and  the 
fun  of  the  chorus  of  palanquin  bearers  was  as 
current  about  the  table  as  'Pinafore'  phrases 
to-day.  Holmes  was  in  high  spirits,  and 
talked  his  best,  mostly  to  Longfellow.  It 


THE  AUTOCRAT.  139 

was  almost  like  a  veritable  autocrat  in  full 
activity,  coruscating,  punning,  and  bearing 
all  before  him.' 

"  There  were  no  horse-cars  then,  I  think, 
or  it  might  have  been  late  ;  at  all  events,  the 
whole  party,  including  Emerson,  Longfellow, 
and  the  other  Olympians,  walked  down  to 
Harvard  Square  through  nearly  a  foot  of  new- 
fallen  snow.  The  impression  of  this  intellect 
ual  feast  is  ineffaceable,  but  it  seems  now  as 
far  away  as  the  Trojan  war." 

The  Dr.  Palmer  alluded  to  by  Mr.  Under 
wood  was  Dr.  John  Williamson  Palmer,  who 
in  1852-53  had  served  through  the  Burmese 
campaign  as  surgeon  in  one  of  the  East  India 
Company's  war  steamers,  and  had  travelled  a 
good  deal  in  India.  His  Oriental  papers  in 
the  first  numbers  of  the  Atlantic  are  full  of 
the  most  rollicking  fun.  (See  Appendix  I.) 

Another  organization  which  brought  to 
gether  many  of  the  contributors  to  the  Atlan 
tic  was  the  Saturday  Club,  which  met,  and 
still  meets,  every  Saturday  at  two  o'clock  in 
the  mirror-room  at  Parker's.  Members  in 
the  early  days  were  Felton,  Whipple,  Judge 
Hoar,  James  Freeman  Clarke,  Agassiz,  and 


140  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

others.  It  has  owed  its  longevity  to  its 
entire  informality,  and  its  freedom  from 
speech-making. 

To  return  to  the  "  Autocrat  of  the  Break 
fast-Table."  The  original,  or  prototypal, 
papers  published  under  this  title  in  Bucking 
ham's  New  England  Magazine  for  1831  and 
1832,  were  written  by  Holmes  while  a  law- 
student  in  Cambridge,  and  are  indeed  boyish 
and  uncombed  literary  productions,  although 
the  searching  glance  may  detect  in  them  the 
germ  or  crude  hint  of  every  characteristic  of 
the  "Autocrat"  of  1857.  They  consist  of 
detached  paragraphs, — fragmentary  and  un 
related  aphoristic  remarks  on  all  manner  of 
subjects.  We  must  respect  the  wisdom  that 
led  their  author  to  deprecate  a  resurrection  of 
these  early  pieces.  Their  coarse  slang,  egot 
ism,  flippancy,  and  priggishness  are  scarcely 
redeemed  by  the  few  gems  that  glitter  here 
and  there,  giving  promise  of  the  genial  writer 
into  which  the  boy  of  twenty-two  was  to 
develop  in  after  years.  Yet,  in  spite  of  the 
rawness  and  unabashed  sophomorism  of  the 
style,  one  feels,  in  reading  these  early  trial 
chapters,  that  pleasant  excitation  which  de- 


THE  AUTOCRAT.  14! 

cicled  originality  always  produces.  In  this 
respect,  but  in  no  other,  they  are  supe 
rior  to  Longfellow's  articles  styled  "The 
Schoolmaster,"  published  in  the  same  num 
bers  of  the  magazine.  The  following  whim 
sical  stanzas  appear  in  Buckingham's  maga 
zine,  and  have  not  been  republished  by  Dr. 
Holmes ;  but  they  are  so  good  that  he  will 
doubtless  pardon  their  reproduction  :  — 

"TO    A    LADY   WITH    HER    BACK    TO    ME. 

(Written  while  sailing  up  the  Delaware.) 

"  I  know  thy  face  is  fresh  and  bright, 

Thou  angel-moulded  girl  ; 
I  caught  one  glimpse  of  purest  white, 
I  saw  one  auburn  curl. 

"  O  would  the  whispering  ripples  breathe 

The  thoughts  that  vainly  strive  — 
She  turns  —  she  turns  to  look  on  me; 
Black !  cross-eyed  1  seventy-five  ! " 

There  are  two  or  three  prose  bits  in  the 
first  "Autocrat"  papers  worth  quoting, — as 
these  :  — 

"There  is  a  dilute  atmosphere  of  learning 
which  extends  to  some  distance  around  a  lit 
erary  institution,  almost  as  bad  as  the  vacuum 


142  OLIVER   WEXDELL  HOLMES. 

of  ignorance.  Within  such  precincts  I  would 
look  for  the  Flat  in  his  most  spiritless  in 
anity,  and  the  Bore  at  the  acme  of  intensity." 

"Drink  as  much  as  you  please  before  your 
grandfather,  but  mind  whom  you  kiss  before 
your  little  brother." 

Here  is  a  powerful  psychological  delinea 
tion  of  a  murderer's  soul  :  — 

"  His  eye,  as  nearly  as  I  could  tell  of  a 
misty-gray,  was  fixed  and  calm,  but  it  seemed 
to  convey  no  more  perception  to  his  mind 
than  if  he  had  been  talking  to  a  phantom. 
When  the  springs  that  supply  the  soul  are  all 
cut  off,  for  a  little  while,  her  dark  waters 
heave  vainly  against  their  barriers,  and  then 
hush  themselves  into  stillness  and  blackness. 
A  few  hidden  fountains  may  break  up  and 
pour  themselves  into  her  bosom  ;  but  day  by 
day  her  circle  is  narrowing,  and  the  depths, 
once  covered,  lie  bare  in  their  desolation." 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  state  that  the  early 
"  Autocrat "  papers  gave  only  their  title  to  the 
later  ones  of  1857.  In  the  twenty-five  years 
that  had  passed,  the  entire  diapason  of  man 
hood  had  been  played  over,  and  the  most  that 
life  has  to  offer  of  joy  or  sorrow  had  been 


THE  AUTOCRAT.  143 

tasted.  The  pent-up  thoughts  of  this  long 
period  —  all  its  observations  and  experiences 
—  are  now  (in  1857)  flung  out  upon  the  page 
in  the  light  and  airy  form  of  breakfast-table 
chat.  The  charm  is  in  the  spontaneity. 
"  Remembering,"  says  Holmes,  "  some  crude 
papers  of  mine  in  an  old  magazine,  it  occurred 
to  me  that  their  title  might  serve  for  some 
pert  papers,  and  so  I  sat  down  and  wrote  off 
what  came  into  my  head  under  the  title,  '  The 
Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast-Table.'  This  work 
was  not  the  result  of  an  express  premedita 
tion,  but  was,  as  I  may  say,  dipped  from  the 
running  stream  of  my  thoughts." 

As  in  actual  life  our  pleasantest  hours  are 
those  intensified  periods  passed  at  table  in 
social  converse,  so  in  these  papers  we  have  a 
vigorous  and  sustained  creation  of  thoughts 
and  feelings  and  table-chat  so  true  to  the  life 
(the  conversational  part  of  it)  as  to  seem  like 
an  actual  short-hand  report.  The  "  Autocrat  " 
is  packed  full  of  sententious  practical  knowl 
edge,  nut-shell  sayings,  polished  gems  of 
thought,  flashes  of  wit,  and  keen  and  sub 
tle  aptrpis  into  the  foibles  and  idiosyn 
crasies  of  men  and  women.  It  is  glowing 


144  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

poetry  in  a  prose  dress  (there  are  poems 
too) ;  it  is  the  rich  liquor  of  experience 
decanted  from  its  darkling  receptacle  into 
the  sheen  and  sparkle  of  cut-glass.  There 
is  nothing  in  literature  with  which  it  can 
be  compared  unless  it  be  the  "  Noctes  Am- 
brosianoc "  of  Professor  Wilson  ;  and  it  has 
a  clearer,  more  delicate  ring  than  that  work, 
although  not  so  grand-hearted  and  tumultuous 
and  self-forgetful.  It  is  a  book,  said  an  Eng 
lish  critic,*  "to  conjure  up  a  cosey  winter- 
picture,  of  a  ruddy  fire,  and  singing  kettle, 
soft  hearth-rug,  warm  slippers,  and  easy 
chair;  a  musical  chime  of  cups  and  saucers, 
fragrance  of  tea  and  toast  within  :  and  those 
flowers  of  frost  fading  on  the  windows  with 
out,  as  though  old  winter  just  looked  in,  but 
his  cold  breath  was  melted,  and  so  he  passed 
by.  A  book  to  possess  two  copies  of ;  one  to 
be  read  and  marked,  thumbed  and  dog-eared  ; 
and  one  to  stand  up  in  its  pride  of  place  with 
the  rest  on  the  shelves,  all  ranged  in  shining 
rows,  as  dear  old  friends,  and  not  merely  as 
nodding  acquaintances." 

One  of  the  features  of  the  book  is  its  ren- 

*  In  the  North  British  Review  for  November,  1860. 


THE  AUTOCRAT.  145 

dering  of  those  subtle  and  elusive  thoughts 
that  are  rarely  put  into  words  ;  as  that  about 
the  sensation  we  so  often  experience  of  hav 
ing  done  or  thought  something  similar  or 
identical  before,  and  in  similar  circumstances, 
and  of  having  had  this  feeling  in  dreams  also  ; 
or  that  remark  about  the  tendency  we  have  to 
string  adjectives  or  epithets  in  triads,  and  the 
explanation  offered  that  "  it  is  an  instinctive 
and  involuntary  effort  of  the  mind  to  present 
a  thought  or  image  with  the  three  dimensions 
that  belong  to  every  solid." 

To  all  the  pleasant  interpretations  of  our 
unspoken  thought  in  the  "  Autocrat "  we 
keep  saying,  in  the  words  of  the  old  gentle 
man  who  sat  at  the  landlady's  table,  "  That's 
it !  that's  it !  "  as  when  we  read  that  the  thing 
that  more  than  anything  else  spoils  good  con 
versation  consists  of  "long  arguments  on 
special  points  between  people  who  differ  on 
the  fundamental  principles  on  which  these 
points  depend  ";  or  when  the  Autocrat  an 
nounces  that  he  allows  no  bullying  facts  at 
this  table,  and  remarks  that  the  fluent  har 
monies  of  conversation  may  be  spoiled  by 
the  intrusion  of  a  single  false  note  ;  or  when 


146  OLIVER   WE X DELL  HOLMES. 

he  says  that  the  work  of  logic  is,  generally 
speaking,  to  build  a  pons  asinonim  over 
chasms  which  shrewd  people  can  bestride 
without  such  a  structure;  or  when  London 
on  Derby  day  is  likened  to  a  shelled  corn 
cob,  "and  there  is  not  a  clerk  who  could 
raise  the  money  to  hire  a  saddle  with  an  old 
hack  under  it  that  can  sit  down  on  his  office- 
stool  the  next  day  without  wincing." 

There  are  one  or  two  sayings  in  the  "  Au 
tocrat"  that  have  become  proverbial  ;  namely, 
the  remark  that  the  finest  specimens  of  the 
New  England  character  are  raised  under 
glass  ;  and  the  mot  which  gives  to  Boston  the 
title  "hub  of  the  solar  system"  (not  "hub  of 
the  universe,"  as  it  is  sometimes  quoted).* 
The  poems  included  in  the  volume  are,  as  a 
body,  the  author's  very  best, — "The  Cham 
bered  Nautilus,"  "  Latter-Day  Warnings," 
"Estivation,"  "The  One-Hoss  Shay,"  "Ode 

*  The  Hon.  George  Folsom,  in  his  Life  of  Sir  Ferdi- 
nando  Gorges,  quotes  a  certain  querulous  agent  of  the 
Plymouth  Colony  to  this  effect.  "All  the  frame  of 
heaven  moves  upon  one  axis,  and  the  whole  of  New 
England's  interest  seems  designed  to  be  loaden  on  one 
bottom,  and  her  particular  motions  to  be  concentric  to 
the  Massachusetts  tropic." 


THE  AUTOCRAT.  147 

for  a  Social  Meeting,  with  slight  Alterations 
by  a  Teetotaller,"  etc.  There  are  a  few 
slight  deficiencies  in  the  "Autocrat."  The 
poems  are  introduced  a  little  awkwardly,  and 
the  machinery  of  the  characters  and  of  the 
boarding-house  is  a  little  tiresome,  and  in  the 
succeeding  volumes  of  the  "  Professor  "  and 
the  "  Poet  "  becomes  unspeakably  wearisome. 
In  the  latter  volumes  the  poor  straw-men,  or 
lay-figures,  set  up  for  the  author  to  exercise 
his  wit  upon,  get  completely  worn  out  with 
being  so  long  buffeted  about,  poor  things  ! 
The  straw  sticks  out  at  their  elbows,  and  the 
sawdust  dribbles  from  their  armpits,  until, 
like  Don  Quixote  at  Master  Peter's  Puppet- 
Show,  we  would  fain,  in  our  impatience,  fall 
upon  the  whole  rabble  rout  and  hustle  them 
out  of  our  sight.  But  in  the  "  Autocrat " 
proper  these  characters  —  the  Schoolmis 
tress,  Benjamin  Franklin,  the  Landlady,  etc., 
-are  pretty  skilfully  subordinated  to  the 
chief  actor,  or  talker,  in  the  scene,  and,  as  a 
whole,  the  work  is  justly  ranked  with  such 
productions  as  Emerson's  "Conduct  of  Life" 
or  Iamb's  "  Essays  of  Elia." 

Narrow   and   acrid,  indeed,    must    be   the 


148  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

nature  that  would  find  fault  with  Dr.  Holmes' 
chief  work  because  it  is  mainly  monologue. 
Shall  not  the  Autocrat  wield  his  sceptre  ? 
Grant  that  — 

"  Though  he  changes  dress  and  name, 
The  man  beneath  is  still  the  same, 
Laughing  or  sad,  by  fits  and  starts, 
One  actor  in  a  dozen  parts, 
And  whatsoe'er  the  mask  may  be, 
The  voice  assures  us,  This  is  /ie." 

Grant  this,  and  say  that  this  is  not  good 
drama,  still  we  are  glad  to  have  his  thought 
in  any  shape  ;  and,  regarding  the  "Autocrat  " 
alone,  we  say  with  its  author  that  it  is  not 
much  matter,  after  all, 

"If  the  figures  seen 
Are  only  shadows  on  a  screen, 
He  finds  in  them  his  lurking  thought, 
And  on  their  lips  the  words  he  sought, 
Like  one  who  sits  before  the  keys 
And  plays  a  tune  himself  to  please." 

In  1882,  twenty-five  years  after  the  pen 
ning  of  the  "Autocrat,"  Dr.  Holmes  wrote 
a  new  preface  to  the  work,  and  added  some 


THE  AUTOCRAT.  149 

interesting  foot-notes.  He  alluded  to  the 
great  change  that  had  taken  place  in  the 
religious  opinions  of  people,  saying  that  when 
he  wrote  his  Breakfast-Table  series  it  almost 
meant  social  martyrdom  to  utter  truths  that 
can  now  be  spoken  and  defended  in  any 
circle  of  listeners  without  offence. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

NOVELS  AND   ESSAYS. 

IN  the  Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society  for  December,  1859,  Dr. 
Holmes  gives  an  agreeable  account  of  a  visit 
paid  by  him  to  Washington  Irving  in  Decem 
ber,  1858,  the  year  before  Irving  died  :  — 

"  Sunnyside  was  snowyside  on  that  Decem 
ber  morning ;  yet  the  thin  white  veil  could 
not  conceal  the  features  of  a  place  long  fa 
miliar  to  me  through  the  aid  of  engravings 
and  photographs,  and  as  stereotyped  in  the 
miraculous,  solid  sun-pictures.  The  sharp- 
pinnacled  roof,  surmounted  by  the  old  Dutch 
weather-cock  ;  the  vine-clad  cottage,  with  its 
three-arched  open  porch,  —  open  on  all  sides, 
like  the  master's  heart,  —  were  there  just  as 
I  knew  them,  just  as  thousands  know  them 
who  have  never  trodden  or  floated  between 
the  banks  of  the  Hudson. 

"We  knocked  and  were  admitted,  feeling 
150 


NOVELS  AXD  ESSAYS.  151 

still  very  doubtful  whether  Mr.  Irving  would 
be  able  to  see  us.  Presently  we  heard  a  slow 
step,  which  could  not  be  mistaken  in  that 
household  of  noiseless  footfalls.  Mr.  Irving 
entered  the  room,  and  welcomed  us  in  the 
most  cordial  manner.  He  was  slighter  and 
more  delicately  organized  than  I  had  sup 
posed  ;  of  less  than  average  stature,  I  should 
think,  looking  feeble,  but  with  kindness  beam 
ing  from  every  feature.  He  spoke  almost  in 
a  whisper,  with  effort,  his  voice  muffled  by 
some  obstruction.  Age  had  treated  him  like 
a  friend  ;  borrowing  somewhat,  as  is  his  wont, 
but  lending  also  those  gentle  graces  which 
give  an  inexpressible  charm  to  the  converse 
of  wise  and  good  old  men,  whose  sympathies 
keep  their  hearts  young  and  their  minds 
open.  .  .  .  Something  authorized  me  to  al 
lude  to  his  illness,  and  my  old  professional 
instincts  led  me  to  suggest  to  him  the  use  of 
certain  palliatives  which  I  had  known  to  be 
used  in  some  cases  having  symptoms  resem 
bling  his  own. 

"After  returning  home  I  sent  him  some 
articles  of  this  kind.  Early  in  January  he 
wrote  me  a  letter  of  considerable  length  ; 


152  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

saying,  among  other  things,  that  he  had  used 
some  medicated  cigarettes  I  sent  him  with 
much  relief.  This  letter  was  overflowing 
with  expressions  of  kindness ;  but,  though 
written  in  his  own  hand,  it  had  no  signature. 
I  sent  it  back  to  him  for  his  name ;  telling 
him  that  his  was  the  first  autograph  I  had 
ever  asked  for,  but  that  I  must  have  it  at  the 
end  of  such  a  letter.  The  next  post  brought 
the  letter  back  signed." 

In  1858  Holmes  removed  from  the  old 
Montgomery  Place  home  to  21  Charles  Street, 
where  he  had  as  neighbors  Governor  Andrew 
and  James  T.  Fields.  His  study,  in  the  rear 
of  the  house,  commanded  a  wide  and  beauti 
ful  view  of  Charles  River,  with  the  towns  of 
Cambridge  and  Brighton,  and  the  green 
slopes  of  Corey  and  Parker  hills  in  the  dis 
tance.  Here  twice  a  day,  almost  beneath  the 
very  windows,  the  tidal  waters  of  the  ocean 
come  surging  in  along  the  sinuous  Charles, 
bearing  the  perfume  and  strength  of  the 
sea  in  their  arms.  To  the  right  one  sees  the 
long  procession  of  travellers  along  West  Bos 
ton  bridge;  in  the  distance  loom  the  spires 
of  Cambridge ;  the  far-off  hills  are  full  of 


NOVELS  AND  ESSAYS.  153 

beauty,   their   tints    ever   changing;    and   at 
evening  you  have  in  full  view 

"  The  gorgeous,  indolent,  sinking  sun, 
Burning,  expanding  the  air." 

At  night  there  is  something  Venetian  in 
the  appearance  of  the  Back  Bay,  as  the  ex 
pansion  of  the  Charles  River  here  is  styled. 
The  long  lamp-rows  of  the  bridges  and  of 
the  Brighton  road,  the  colored  lights  stream 
ing  down  into  the  reflected  abyss  of  the 
sky,  the  gleam  of  the  smooth  elastic  sur 
face  of  the  stream,  the  expanse  of  stars,  —  it 
is  all  very  soothing  and  beautiful  of  a  summer 
evening.  By  day  a  prominent  feature  of  the 
landscape  is  formed  by  the  smoke-pillars  from 
the  tall  East  Cambridge  factory-chimneys,  - 
the  giant-twisted  smoke-columns  of  jet  or  snow, 
pinnacled  in  the  azure  sky,  silent,  sinuous, 
stately,  the  grace  of  motion  and  contour  in 
perfect  and  harmonious  expression.  In  win 
ter  the  scene  is  still  full  of  charm,  with  variety 
of  tint  and  aspect,  —  the  distant  snow-line 
meeting  that  of  the  sky,  the  ships,  the  ice, 
the  wheeling  gulls,  etc.  From  his  study- 
window  Dr.  Holmes  used  to  look  out  with  an 


154  OLIVER    WENDELL   HOLMES. 

opera-glass  at  the  little  groups  of  tent-like 
screens  made  of  sail-cloth  and  used  by  men 
who  were  fishing  through  the  ice.  There  was 
then,  and  there  is  to-day,  a  good  deal  of  fish 
ing  for  eels  and  smelts  from  West  Boston 
bridge.  In  the  "Autocrat"  Dr.  Holmes 
tells  us  about  his  rowing  experiences  on  the 
Charles  and  about  the  harbor.  He  kept 
several  boats  at  the  foot  of  his  garden.  His 
boat  was  the  delicate  "shell"  with  its  an 
tennae-oars. 

The  "Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast-Table" 
was  followed  in  1859  by  "The  Professor  at 
the  Breakfast-Table,"  a  work  distinctly  in 
ferior  to  its  predecessor,  but  containing 
many  fine  single  passages,  and  one  episode, 
the  "  Story  of  Iris,"  which  possesses  great 
pathos  and  beauty,  and  has  been  reprinted  in 
Rossiter  Johnson's  "Little  Classics."  The 
last  moments  of  the  poor  old  starved  tutor, 
and  his  words  to  his  little  daughter,  will  draw 
the  tears  from  the  eyes  of  many  a  reader: 
"'Iris!'  he  said,  —  'filiola  mca  !  '  —  The 
child  knew  this  meant  my  dear  little  daughter 
as  well  as  if  it  had  been  English.  —  'Rain 
bow!' —  for  he  would  translate  her  name  at 


A'OrELS  AND  ESSAYS.  155 

times,  —  'come  to  me,  —  I'tni' — and  his 
lips  went  on  automatically,  and  murmured, 
'vel  vcnito  /'  —  The  child  came  and  sat  by 
his  bedside,  and  took  his  hand,  which  she 
could  not  warm,  but  which  shot  its  rays  of 
cold  all  through  her  slender  frame.  But 
there  she  sat,  looking  steadily  at  him.  Pres 
ently  he  opened  his  lips  feebly,  and  whis 
pered,  '  Moribundus!  She  did  not  know 
what  that  meant,  but  she  saw  that  there  was 
something  new  and  sad.  So  she  began  to 
cry  ;  but  presently  remembering  an  old  book 
that  seemed  to  comfort  him  at  times,  got  up 
and  brought  a  Bible  in  the  Latin  version, 
called  the  Vulgate.  'Open  it,'  he  said, —  '  I 
will  read, — scgnios  irritant,  —  don't  put  the 
light  out, — ah!  hacrct  lateri, —  I  am  going, 

—  vale,   vale,  vale,  good-by,    good-by  —  the 
Lord  take  care  of  my  child  !  — Domini  aiidi, 

—  vel audito  f '     His  face  whitened  suddenly, 
and  he  lay  still,  with  open  eyes  and  mouth. 
He  had  taken  his  last  degree." 

As  a  treasury  of  practical  philosophy  and 
observation,  the  "  Professor "  is  a  valuable 
and  readable  book  ;  but  as  a  story  or  narra 
tive  it  is  a  failure.  The  everlasting  boarders 


156  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

appear  on  the  stage  again,  as  lifeless  and 
characterless  as  ever.  The  style  is  turgid, 
and  frothy,  and  wearisome.  Simplicity  and 
the  calmness  of  a  great  nature  is  what  the 
reader  comes  to  long  for.  The  Christian  Ex 
aminer  said  of  "  The  Professor  at  the  Break 
fast-Table  ":  "  The  anxiety  to  leave  out 
nothing  in  the  estimate  of  the  universe,  whe 
ther  of  old  ideals  or  of  new  experiences,  and 
the  anxiety  not  to  be  too  anxious,  are  curi 
ously  balanced  throughout  the  book.  There 
is  a  keen  susceptibility  to  impressions,  out 
ward  or  inward,  checked  by  the  desire  not  to 
be  led  away  by  these  impressions,  and  a 
belief  that  the  base  and  issue  of  things  are 
both  good  and  right." 

In  the  "Autocrat"  Professor  Holmes  had 
expressed  the  opinion  that  every  man  has  in 
him  the  material  for  one  novel  at  least ;  for 
one's  own  life  experiences  would  furnish  him 
with  such  material.  This  hint  of  the  inev 
itable  novel,  at  which  everybody  nowadays 
tries  his  or  her  hand,  took  shape  in  1859  in 
that  weird  New  England  story,  "  Elsie  Ven- 
ner,  a  Romance  of  Destiny,"  which  exerted 
its  subtle  and  thrilling  fascination  over  a  wide 


NOrELS  AND  ESSAYS. 

circle  of  readers,  and  was  followed  in  1867  by 
the  somewhat  similar  novel,  "  The  Guardian 
Angel." 

Of  the  technical  qualifications  of  the  pro 
fessional  novel-wright  Holmes  has  not  where 
with  to  furnish  forth  even  a  third-rale  genius  ; 
there  are  twenty-and-one  novelists  now  living 
who  would  laugh  to  scorn  the  threadbare 
conventionalisms  of  his  plots,  notwithstand 
ing  their  few  thrilling  dramatic  incidents. 
But  then  his  two  novels  are  not  so  much 
novels  of  plot  as  they  are  stories  written  to 
illustrate  a  psychological  theory  of  heredity, 
and  the  interest  chiefly  centres,  and  was  in 
tended  to  centre,  upon  the  one  character  in 
the  novel  whose  nature  and  life  experiences 
set  forth  the  theory.  The  strength  of  "  Elsie 
Vcnner  "  and  "  The  Guardian  Angel  "  lies  in 
their  shrewd  psychological  analysis  of  char 
acter  (or  rather  of  mental  states),  and  in  their 
wealth  of  practical  philosophy,  incidental  in 
formation,  and  strong  flavor  of  New  England- 
ism.  Certain  types  of  New  England  charac 
ter  are  sketched  in  coarse,  raw  pigments  with 
great  fidelity  ;  but,  when  the  author  is  de 
picting  his  subordinate  and  ruder  personages, 


158  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

you  generally  receive  the  impression  of  gro 
tesque  exaggeration  and  caricature  (like  that 
of  firelight  shadows  on  the  wall).  On  such 
occasions  he  has  an  irresistible  tendency  to 
indulge  in  a  kind  of  horse-play,  a  coarse  real 
ism  of  portraiture  to  a  great  extent  lacking 
in  the  subtle  and  delicate  touch  by  which  the 
great  novelists  reveal  the  hidden  springs  of 
feeling  and  nobleness  even  in  their  least 
prominent  characters.  There  is  a  certain 
harshness  or  hardness  of  manner  in  Dr. 
Holmes'  novels.  "  Elsie  Venner  "  and  "  The 
Guardian  Angel"  are  pervaded  through 
out  by  a  physiological  atmosphere,  with  a 
whiff  now  and  then  from  the  peculiar  medi 
cated  air  of  the  physician's  office.  When 
Dr.  Holmes  brings  a  new  character  before  us, 
or  before  himself,  he  is  apt  to  begin  his  de 
lineation  with  a  sensuous,  physiological  study 
of  the  outward  casing,  tells  us  about  the 
suits  of  muscles — the  trapezius,  the  del 
toid,  the  triceps  —  and  many  other  facts  of 
the  kind. 

The  readers  of  Holmes  who  know  that  his 
chief  trait  is  self-consciousness,  and  that  the 
power  of  projecting  himself  into  the  lives  of 


NOVELS  AND  ESSAYS.  159 

others,  and  becoming  those  others  for  a  time, 
is  something  only  with  difficulty  and  effort  ac 
complished  by  him,  get  the  feeling  that,  in  the 
character  of  novelist,  he  is  only  playing  a  role, 
—  as  if  he  had  said,  "  Go  to !  I  can  write  a 
novel  as  well  as  others ;  see  in  how  approved  a 
fashion  I  do  it."  A  feature  of  his  two  novels 
which  strengthens  this  impression  is  that 
many  of  their  details  seem  not  to  have  been 
premeditated,  but  to  have  been  ground  out 
as  the  writer  went  on. 

But  in  spite  of  their  deficiencies  the  stories 
hold  us  fascinated  to  the  end.  This  means 
that  they  are  successful  works  ;  and,  indeed, 
they  have  had,  and  still  have,  a  wide  circle  of 
readers.  "  Elsie  Venner,"  especially,  has 
attracted  great  attention  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic. 

A  few  words  should  be  said  about  our 
author's  types  of  women,  or  let  us  say  his 
typical  woman.  It  is,  perhaps,  too  much  to 
expect  that  a  physician  and  physiologist  should 
have  a  very  exalted  idea  of  woman.  We 
should  hardly  expect  one  who  spends  his  life 
in  considering  the  weak  and  diseased  speci 
mens  of  any  group  of  nature's  productions,  to 


I6O  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

have  a  high  ideal  view  of  the  present  excel 
lences  and  latent  possibilities  of  develop 
ment  of  the  group  as  a  sound  and  beautiful 
whole.  Dr.  Holmes,  at  any  rate,  is  half  a 
century  behind  the  times  in  his  conception  of 
woman.  His  women  are  little  more  than 
pretty  pieces  of  flesh,  "fine  specimens  of 
muliebrity,"  "fine  specimens  of  young  fe 
males."  "  The  less  there  is  of  sex  about 
a  woman,"  he  says,  "the  more  she  is  to  be 
dreaded."  There  is  of  course  a  good  deal  of 
truth  in  this  statement,  and  there  is  truth  in 
Dr.  Holmes'  delineation  of  the  womanly  type 
as  being  at  its  best  and  highest  (domestically 
speaking)  when  the  softness  and  grace  of  wife- 
hood  and  maternity  are  in  normal  and  har 
monious  expression.  But  what  we  quarrel 
with  him  for  is  that  he  stops  there  and  shows 
himself  apparently  incapable  of  conceiving  of 
woman  in  her  relations  outside  of  the  domes 
tic  circle,  where,  equally  with  man  outside  of 
the  relations  of  fatherhood  and  the  home,  she 
appears  as  an  aspiring  human  being,  athirst 
for  knowledge  and  power  and  aesthetic  enjoy 
ment.  There  is  not  apparently  in  all  of  Dr. 
Holmes'  writings  a  single  passage  which  ex- 


A'O  VELS  A  ND  ESS  A  YS.  1 6 1 

presses  any  sympathy  with  woman  in  her 
nobler  ideal  aspirations  and  struggles.  Per 
sonally,  he  is  popular  with  women,  as  most 
physicians  are  ;  but  he  has  been  taken  to, task 
for  his  low  ideal  of  womanhood  by  more  than 
one  female  writer.  Listen  to  him  :  "  I  con 
fess  I  like  the  quality-ladies  better  than  the 
common  kind  even  of  literary  ones.  They 
haven't  read  the  last  book,  perhaps,  but  they 
attend  better  to  you  when  you  are  talking  to 
them.  If  they  are  never  learned  they  make 
up  for  it  in  tact  and  elegance.  Besides,  I 
think,  on  the  whole,  there  is  less  of  self-asser 
tion  in  diamonds  than  in  dogmas."  He  has  no 
doubt  that  Esther  "  was  a  more  gracious  and 
agreeable  person  than  Deborah,  who  judged 
the  people  and  wrote  the  story  of  Sisera."  .  .  . 
"  A  woman  who  does  not  carry  a  halo  of  good 
feeling  and  desire  to  make  everybody  con 
tented  about  with  her  wherever  she  goes,  — 
an  atmosphere  of  grace,  mercy,  and  peace,  of 
at  least  six  feet  radius,  which  wraps  every 
human  being  upon  whom  she  voluntarily  be 
stows  her  presence,  and  so  flatters  him  with 
the  comfortable  thought  that  she  is  rather 
glad  he  is  alive  than  otherwise,  isn't  worth 


1 62  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

the  trouble  of  talking  to  as  a  woman ;  she 
may  do  well  enough  to  hold  discussions 
with." 

Observe  the  complacent  masculine  arro 
gance  (so  naYve  !),  the  reference  of  the  whole 
matter  to  one's  self :  the  question  with  him  is 
not  whether  woman  shall  develop  herself  nobly 
or  not,  but  does  she  please  me,  does  she 
flatter  me,  comfort  me,  and  add  to  my  enjoy 
ment.  It  is  such  seraglio  philosophy  as  this 
that  brings  the  sneer  to  the  lips  of  the  nobler 
women  when  they  are  discussing  men  among 
themselves.  But  we  may  not  be  too  harsh  in 
our  strictures.  For,  although  such  philosophy 
as  this  is  now  happily  almost  entirely  rele 
gated  to  the  less  liberalized  ranks  of  society,  it 
was  not  so  thirty  or  forty  years  ago  ;  the  prev 
alent  conception  then  was  that  which  appears 
in  the  writings  of  Holmes.  He  has  of  late 
both  in  print  and  in  private  conversation  ex 
pressed  the  wish  that  he  could  recall  many 
things  written  in  his  earlier  years,  and  we 
shall  doubtless  be  right  in  including  among 
these  certain  pages  or  paragraphs  in  which  he 
has  treated  of  woman.  Let  us  not  forget  to 
add  that  his  portraitures  of  the  doll-type  of 


NOVELS  AXD  ESSAYS.  163 

women  are  very  pretty  and  attractive.  Iris, 
Myrtle  Hazard,  Olive  Eveleth,  Letty  Forres 
ter,  —  they  are  all  charming  little  women, 
lovable  and  wifely.  What  a  subtle  concep 
tion  that  of  Iris  !  Falling  in  love  with  the 
deformed  Little  Gentleman,  and  then,  in  the 
utter  goodness  and  eternal  womanly  devotion 
of  her  soul,  trying  to  idealize  deformity,  and 
look  at  it  as  one  of  Nature's  eccentric  curves, 
and  a  necessary  part  of  the  system  of  beauty  ; 
and  then  filling  her  drawing-book  with  crea 
tures  having  twisted  spines,  humped  drome 
daries,  high-shouldered  herons,  buffaloes,  and 
twisted  serpents  !  And  her  devotion  in  car 
ing  for  the  poor  dwarf  in  his  last  illness,  all 
this  is  very  noble,  and  goes  far  toward  making 
us  pleased  with  Dr.  Holmes'  conception  of 
woman  as  wife.  Iris  is  indeed  a  delicate 
creature. 

But  the  reader  will  get  better  hints  of  Dr. 
Holmes'  methods  as  a  novelist  by  examining 
with  us  the  separate  works.  "  Elsie  Venner  " 
appeared  under  the  title  of  "  The  Professor's 
Story,"  in  1859  and  '860.  The  central  con 
ception  of  the  novel  is  a  weird  and  powerful 
one,  strongly  grasped  and  consistently  and 


164  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES 

subtly  elaborated  in  its  details.  One  who  is 
about  to  become  a  mother  is  bitten  by  a  rat 
tlesnake.  The  mother  lives  for  three  weeks 
after  the  birth  of  the  child  and  then  dies. 
The  child,  infected  and  serpentized  by  the 
poison,  grows  up,  and  manifests  many  of  the 
characteristics  of  the  snake.  The  story  is  a 
tragedy  :  poor  serpentoid  Elsie  excites  either 
pity  or  horror  in  all  breasts  but  one,  that  of 
her  old  black  nurse,  Sophy,  who  really  loves 
her.  But  her  rich  and  passionate  nature  asks 
a  deeper  and  more  intimate  love  than  this, 
and  when  she  finds  that  the  young  scholar 
upon  whom  she  has  bestowed  her  affection 
cannot  return  it  she  dies  in  despair ;  but  love 
has  acted  as  a  spell  to  release  her  from  the 
weird  enchantment,  and  before  she  dies  she 
seems  completely  free  from  the  terrifying 
serpentine  looks  and  actions  which  have  char 
acterized  her,  and  leaves  with  us  the  impres 
sion  that  if  she  could  only  have  had  her  love 
returned  she  would  have  been  cured  of  her 
inherited  taint,  and  would  have  had  a  happy 
married  life.*  This  bringing  back  into 

*  Compare  carefully  pages   231   and  232  with  page 
262  (Vol.  II.,  original  edition). 


NOVELS  AND  ESSAYS.  165 

human  fellowship  and  sympathy  of  some 
abnormal  or  sin-scarred  individual  through 
the  potent  might  of  love,  or  the  growth  of 
human  affection  and  sympathy,  is  also  the 
central  idea  of  "The  Guardian  Angel,"  of 
the  "  Silas  Warner  "  of  George  Eliot,  and  of 
nearly  all  of  Hawthorne's  works,  —  only  in 
Holmes'  stories  the  taint  is  physiological  ;  in 
the  others  it  is  ethical.  The  isolation  which 
was  the  lot  of  poor  Elsie  is  described  by 
Hawthorne  in  "  The  Marble  Faun "  as  the 
"  perception  of  an  infinite  shivering  solitude, 
amid  which  we  cannot  come  close  enough  to 
human  beings  to  be  warmed  by  them,  and 
where  they  turn  to  cold,  chilly  shapes  of 
mist."  This  isolation  was  the  lot  of  Gervase 
Hastings,  of  Ethan  Brand,  of  old  Rappaccini, 
Hollingsworth,  Roger  Chillingsworth,  Hester 
Prynne,  and  Donatello.  When  Hester  forgot 
herself  in  ministrations  to  the  suffering  and 
sorrowing  she  lost  the  sense  of  her  guilt,  and 
"the  scarlet  letter  ceased  to  be  a  stigma;" 
in  the  case  of  Donatello,  "when  first  the  idea 
was  suggested  of  living  for  the  welfare  of  his 
fellow-creatures,  the  original  beauty,  which 
sorrow  had  partly  effaced,  came  back  elevated 


1 66  OLIVER   W  EX  DELL  HOLMES. 

and  spiritualized.  In  the  black  depths  the 
Faun  had  found  a  soul,  and  was  struggling 
with  it  toward  the  light  of  heaven  "  ;  and  in 
Hawthorne's  story  of  "  Egotism,  or  the  Bosom 
Serpent,"  Roderick  Elliston,  haunted  by  the 
belief  that  a  serpent  is  lodged  in  his  bosom, 
was  cured  of  his  hallucination  the  moment 
that  his  gentle  wife  whispered  in  his  ear 
the  words,  "  Forget  yourself  in  the  idea  of 
another."  Then  did  he  perceive  that  the  ser 
pent  in  his  bosom  was  his  own  selfishness.* 
In  "The  Marble  Faun"  Hawthorne  has  given 
us,  in  the  character  of  Donatello,  an  idea 
like  that  which  Dr.  Holmes  has  embodied 
in  "  Elsie  Venner,"  namely,  of  a  human 
being  inheriting  certain  characteristics  of  an 
animal. 

Almost  all  of  Dr.  Holmes'  books  are  written 
to  combat  some  theological  dogma.  The 
moral  intended  to  be  conveyed  by  "  Elsie 
Venner"  is  that  men  are  not  responsible  for 
many  of  their  crimes,  shortcomings,  and 
moral  and  mental  twists,  the  tendency  to 

*  See  The  Californian  magazine  for  Aupust,  1881, 
where  the  writer  has  discussed  Hawthorne's  treatment 
of  sin. 


JfOVELS  ASD  ESSAYS.  l6/ 

these  things  having  been  inherited.     This  is 
a  favorite  thesis  with  Dr.   Holmes.     He  be 
lieves   in   free   will,  but   thinks,  with   many 
other   eminent    writers,  that   its  freedom   is 
very  much  limited.     The  old  pastor  in  "  Elsie 
Venner"  is  led  by  the  story  of  the  heroine's 
life   to   adopt    charitable    conclusions    about 
the  total    depravity    of    people ;   and    Helen 
Darley   thinks   that    "if,  while  the  will  lies 
sealed  in  its  fountain,  it  may  be  poisoned  at 
its  very  source,  so  that  it  shall  flow  dark  and 
deadly  through  its  whole  course,  who  are  we 
that  we  should  judge  our  fellow-creatures  by 
ourselves?"     It  should  be  remembered  that 
Dr.  Holmes  does  not  assert  his  absolute  be 
lief  in  the  possibility  of  animal  characteristics 
being   introduced   into   the  nature   by  foetal 
transmission,  as  in  the  case  of  Elsie  Venner, 
but  he  says  that   he   has   received  startling 
confirmation  of  its  possibility. 

The  scene  of  "Elsie  Venner"  is  laid  in 
the  Connecticut  Valley,  apparently  in  or  near 
Northampton,  where,  in  a  quaint  and  roomy 
old  mansion,  lives  Dudley  Venner,  the  father 
of  the  heroine.  To  this  neighborhood  comes 
one  day,  as  a  teacher,  a  young  man  of  the 


1 68  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

"  Brahmin  caste,"  •  -  the  cultured  bookish 
class,  —  named  Bernard  Langdon,  and  with 
him  Elsie  eventually  falls  in  love.  Silas 
Peckham,  proprietor  of  the  Apollinean  Insti 
tute,  employs,  besides  Langdon,  a  Miss  Helen 
Darley,  —  a  frail,  sensitive,  conscientious, 
overworked  young  teacher.  Silas  Peckham 
is  admirably  drawn,  —  only  a  little  too  hid 
eous  for  the  reality, — a  Yankee  Squeers,  a 
hard,  grasping,  merciless  man,  "  thin  as  if  he 
had  been  split  and  dried  ;  with  an  ashen  kind 
of  complexion,  like  the  tint  of  the  food  he  is 
made  of  (split  codfish)  ;  and  about  as  sharp, 
tough,  juiceless,  and  biting  to  deal  with  as  the 
other  is  to  the  taste."  And  Elsie,  —  "She 
was  a  splendid  scowling  beauty,  black-browed, 
with  a  flash  of  white  teeth  which  was  always 
like  a  surprise  when  her  lips  parted.  She 
wore  a  checkered  dress,  of  a  curious  pattern, 
and  a  camel's-hair  scarf  twisted  a  littfe  fan 
tastically  about  her.  .  .  .  Black  piercing  eyes, 
not  large,  —  a  low  forehead,  as  low  as  that  of 
Clytie  in  the  Townley  bust,  —  black  hair 
twisted  in  heavy  braids,  —  a  face  that  one 
could  not  help  looking  at  for  its  beauty,  yet 
that  one  wanted  to  look  away  from  for  some- 


NOVELS  AND  ESSAYS.  [(    ) 

thing  in  its  expression,  and  could  not  for 
those  diamond  eyes."  She  wore  a  barred 
skirt,  had  on  her  arm  as  a  bracelet  a  golden 
asp  with  emerald  eyes,  and  around  her  neck 
sometimes  a  torque  chain,  and  sometimes  a 
necklace  of  enamelled  scales ;  she  loved  to 
haunt  the  dreaded  rattlesnake  cavern,  especi 
ally  in  hot  mid-summer,  when  the  fierce  pois 
ons  of  nature  were  generated  in  the  heats, 
and  when  her  own  nature  became  most  un 
governable  and  serpcntoid  ;  she  had  castanets 
which  she  loved  to  rattle  as  an  accompani 
ment  to  her  dance ;  she  had  the  habit  of  nar 
rowing  her  eyes  like  a  sleepy  cat,  and  of 
drawing  down,  or  flattening,  her  forehead  ; 
she  had  a  just  perceptible  lisp;  her  hands 
were  cold,  and  her  glistening  eyes  had  the 
power  of  fascinating  people  and  making  them 
shudder  and  shiver ;  the  hysterical  school 
mistress,  Helen  Darley,  was  absolutely  made 
ill  by  the  sight  of  her ;  her  handwriting  was 
sharp-pointed,  long  and  slender,  and  she 
wrote  on  wavy,  ribbed  paper;  for  the  olive- 
purple  leaves  of  the  white  ash  she  had  a 
strong  and  unconquerable  aversion,  which  is 
said  to  be  the  case  also  with  the  rattle-snake. 


I/O  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

A  passage  in  the  second  volume  of  the 
story  throws  light  on  the  mystery  of  this 
poor  girl.  When  Helen  Darley,  Elsie's 
teacher,  learns  from  old  Sophy  the  secret  of 
the  "ante-natal  impression  which  had  mingled 
an  alien  element  in  her  nature,"  she  then  un 
derstood  the  fascination  of  her  cold,  glittering 
eyes.  "  She  knew  the  significance  of  the 
strange  repulsion  which  she  felt  in  her  own 
intimate  consciousness  underlying  the  inex 
plicable  attraction  which  drew  her  towards 
the  young  girl  in  spite  of  this  repugnance. 
She  began  to  look  with  new  feelings  on  the 
contradictions  in  her  moral  nature,  —  the 
longing  for  sympathy,  as  shown  by  her  wish 
ing  for  Helen's  company,  and  the  impos 
sibility  of  passing  between  the  cold  circle  of 
isolation  within  which  she  had  her  being. 
The  fearful  truth  of  that  instinctive  feeling 
of  hers,  that  there  was  something  not  human 
looking  out  of  Elsie's  eyes,  came  upon  her 
with  the  sudden  flash  of  penetrating  convic 
tion.  There  were  two  warring  principles  in 
that  superb  organization  and  proud  soul. 
One  made  her  a  woman  with  all  a  woman's 
powers  and  longings.  The  other  chilled  all 


A '0V ELS  AXD  ESSAYS.  1 71 

the  currents  of  outlet  for  her  emotions.  It 
made  her  tearless  and  mute,  when  another 
woman  would  have  wept  and  pleaded.  And 
it  infused  into  her  soul  something  —  it  was 
cruel  now  to  call  it  malice  —  which  was  still, 
watchful,  and  dangerous,  —  which  waited  its 
opportunity,  and  then  shot  like  an  arrow 
from  its  bow  out  of  the  coil  of  brooding  pre 
meditation." 

The  author  of  "  Elsie  Venner"  wisely 
keeps  his  heroine  mysteriously  in  the  back 
ground  of  his  picture,  or  rather  keeps  her  in 
view,  but  does  not  permit  her  to  speak  much. 
This  heightens  the  mystery  and  whets  our 
curiosity.  The  deathbed  scene  of  poor  Elsie 
is  as  pathetic  as  that  of  the  tutor  in  the  story 
of  Iris.  A  rich,  deep,  strange  nature  that  of 
Elsie,  and  one  that  gets  hold  of  our  sympa 
thies  in  a  very  strong  manner.  Who,  indeed, 
can  ever  forget  her  ?  No  character  in  Eng 
lish  literature  more  eldritch  and  fantastical ; 
and  in  English  poetry  but  two  characters  at 
all  resembling  her.  In  Coleridge's  "  Christa- 
bel"  the  lovely  Lady  Geraldine  exercises 
over  the  fair  Christabel  a  fascination  like  that 
of  a  serpent  :  — 


1/2  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

"  A  snake's  small  eye  blinks  dull  and  shy, 
And  the  lady's  eyes  they  shrunk  in  her  head, 
Each  shrunk  up  to  a  serpent's  eye, 
And   with   somewhat  of   malice,  and   more   of 

dread, 
At  Christabel  she  looked  askance  ! " 

The  Lamiae  of  antiquity  were  fabulous  mon 
sters  with  the  head  and  breast  of  a  woman 
and  the  body  of  a  serpent.  They  allured  peo 
ple  to  destruction  by  a  soothing,  strange  kind 
of  hissing.  Keats  gives  a  picture  of  one  of 
these  creatures  :  — 

"A  palpitating  snake, 
Bright,  and  cirque-couchant  in  a  dusky  brake. 

Upon  her  crest  she  wore  a  wannish  fire, 
Sprinkled  with  stars,  like  Ariadne's  tiar ; 
Her  head  was  serpent,  but  ah,  bitter  sweet ! 
She  had  a  woman's  mouth,  with  all  its  pearls  com 
plete." 

The  minor  characters  in  "  Elsie  Venner  "  — 
Old  Sophy,  Dick  Venner,  Helen  Darley,  and 
the  Doctor, — are  finely  individualized.  The 
Sprowles'  party  affords  the  Autocrat  an  oppor- 


NOVELS  AND  ESSAYS.  173 

tunity  to  display  a  good  deal  of  his  character 
istic  satirical  wit,  slang,  and  buffoonery.  There 
is  considerable  fun  and  much  local  coloring 

O 

in  this  bit  of  Optra  comiqnc,  or  variety  show 
—  the  Sprowles'  party  ;  but  the  sketch  is  over 
done,  and  has  a  touch  of  coarseness,  unkind- 
liness,  and  cockneyism  in  it.  However,  the 
ludicrbusness  of  the  situation  grows  irresist 
ible,  and,  when  one  reaches  the  incident  of 
the  Deacon  and  the  ice-cream,  laughter  be 
comes  uncontrollable  and  violent.  The  Dea 
con  mistook  the  ice-cream  for  custard,  and 
after  swallowing  an  immense  spoonful  set  up 
a  sound  something  between  a  howl  and  an 
oath  ;  his  features  assumed  an  expression  of 
intense  pain,  his  eyes  staring  wildly ;  and, 
clapping  his  hands  to  his  face,  he  rocked  his 
head  backward  and  forward  in  speechless 
agony.  After  a  good  deal  of  slapping  on  the 
back  he  recovers.  Here  is  another  bit  of 
realism  :  "  The  elder  Miss  Spinney,  to  whom 
she  made  this  remark,  assented  to  it,  at  the 
same  time  ogling  a  piece  of  frosted  cake, 
which  she  presently  appropriated  with  great 
refinement  of  manner,  —  taking  it  between 
her  thumb  and  forefinger,  keeping  the  others 


174  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

well  spread,  and  the  little  finger  in  extreme 
divergence,  with  a  graceful  undulation  of  the 
neck  and  a  queer  little  sound  in  her  throat,  as 
of  an  ;;/  that  wanted  to  get  out  and  perished 
in  the  attempt." 

The  tea-party  of  the  widow,  Marilla  Row- 
ens,  forms  an  agreeable  companion-piece  to 
the  vulgarities  of  this  party  of  the  Sprowles. 
As  a  pendant  to  this  theme  one  may  add  the 
following  ludicrous  advice  of  the  "  Professor  ": 
"  A  few  rules  are  worth  remembering  by  all 
who  attend  anniversary  dinners  in  Faneuil 
Hall  or  elsewhere.  Thus  :  Lobsters'  claws 
are  always  acceptable  to  children  of  all  ages. 
Oranges  and  apples  are  to  be  taken  one  at  a 
time,  until  the  coat-pockets  begin  to  become 
inconveniently  heavy.  Cakes  are  injured  by 
sitting  upon  them  ;  it  is,  therefore,  well  to 
carry  a  stout  tin-box  of  a  size  to  hold  as  many 
pieces  as  there  are  children  in  the  domestic 
circle." 

"  Elsie  Venner "  is  a  novel  strongly  fla 
vored  with  rural  and  dialect  language,  of 
which,  however,  Dr.  Holmes  does  not  appear 
to  have  made  quite  so  artistic  a  study  as  has 
Lowell.  Some  of  the  rural  characters  of  the 


NOVELS  AND  ESSAYS.  175 

work  well  illustrate  negatively  Dr.  Holmes' 
saying  that  the  best  specimens  of  New  Eng 
land  character  are  raised  under  glass.  Such 
Yankceisms  as  the  dispute,  in  "  Elsie  Venner," 
over  the  skin  and  shoes  of  the  dead  horse,  and 
the  negotiations  of  Silas  Peckham  for  the 
remainder  delicacies  of  the  Sprowles'  party 
to  feed  his  Institute  pupils  with,  are  capital 
satirical  strokes. 

For  the  sake  of  convenience  we  may  here 
consider  Dr.  Holmes'  second  novel,  "The 
Guardian  Angel,"  although  it  was  not  pub 
lished  in  book-form  until  1867.  Perhaps  the 
germ,  or  suggestion,  of  the  work  is  found  in 
this  sentence  from  "  Elsie  Venner":  "  Every 
young  girl  ought  to  walk,  locked  close,  arm 
in  arm,  between  two  guardian  angels."  Myr 
tle  Hazard,  however,  has  but  one,  the  old  bach 
elor  and  book-worm,  Byles  Gridley,  whom  it 
seems  slightly  absurd,  by  the  way,  to  dub 
with  the  title  of  angel.  The  central  idea  of 
the  story  is  this  :  There  is  evidence  which 
seems  to  show  that  persons  who  have  long 
been  dead  "  may  enjoy  a  kind  of  secondary 
and  imperfect,  yet  self-conscious  life  "  in  our 
bodily  tenements.  "This  body,"  says  the 


1/6  OLIVER   WE  X DELL  HOLMES. 

author,  "  in  which  we  journey  across  the 
isthmus  between  the  oceans  is  not  a  private 
carriage,  but  an  omnibus."  The  plan  of  the 
novel  is  to  show  how  in  the  life  of  Myrtle 
Hazard  (the  heroine  of  the  book)  the  traits 
and  experiences  of  ancestors  reappear,  and 
produce  in  her  strange  and  unaccountable 
actions,  until  love  and  self-sacrifice  break  the 
spell.  One  of  her  ancestors  had  been  accused 
of  sorcery,  or  witchcraft  :  consequently  Myr 
tle  is  full  of  wild  and  eldritch  freaks  and  fits  of 
waywardness.  A  tinge  of  tropical  fierceness 
is  added  to  her  character  from  the  circum 
stance  that  she  was  born  in  India ;  when  she 
was  a  little  girl  she  wore  a  scarlet  dress,  and 
was  styled  by  a  young  man  in  the  town  "  the 
fire-hang-bird,"  or  oriole.  Another  of  her  an 
cestors  was  burned  at  the  stake  :  accordingly 
she  is  represented  as  being  cured  of  her  in 
herited  taint,  partly,  indeed,  through  her  love 
of  Clement  Lindsay,  but  chiefly  through  her 
self-denying  offices  of  mercy  in  the  hospitals, 
as  well  as  in  her  self-sacrifice  in  the  choice  of 
a  poor  but  noble  husband  :  "  What  change 
was  this  which  Myrtle  had  undergone  since 
love  had  touched  her  heart,  and  her  visions 


A' 0\' ELS  AXD  ESSAYS.  177 

of  worldly  enjoyment  had  faded  before  the 
thought  of  sharing  and  ennobling  the  life  of 
one  who  was  worthy  of  her  best  affections,  — 
of  living  for  another,  and  finding  her  own 
noblest  self  in  that  divine  office  of  woman  ? 
...  If  it  could  be  that,  after  so  many  gene 
rations,  the  blood  of  her  who  had  died  for  her 
faith  could  show  in  her  descendant's  veins, 
and  the  soul  of  that  elect  lady  of  her  race 
lookout  from  her  far-removed  offspring's  dark 
eyes,  such  a  transfiguration  of  the  martyr's  life 
and  spiritual  being  might  well  seem  to  manifest 
itseU  in  Myrtle  Hazard."  ..."  In  the  offices 
of  mercy  which  she  performed  for  sick  and 
the  wounded  and  the  dying  the  dross  of  her 
nature  seemed  to  be  burned  away.  The  con 
flict  of  mingled  lives  in  her  blood  had  ceased." 
The  plot  of  the  work  has  some  dramatic 
crises  and  developments, — as,  for  example, 
the  scene  at  the  rapids,  the  management  of 
the  will,  and  the  finding  of  the  old  leather 
mitten,  with  the  fist  full  of  silver  dollars,  and 
the  thumb  of  gold  half-eagles.  The  villain, 
Murray  Hradshaw,  is  almost  too  cold  and  pas 
sionless  an  abstraction  to  be  lifelike;  but  not 
so  Byles  Gridley,  author  of  "Thoughts  on 


1 78  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

the  Universe,"  the  dear,  honest,  hearty  old 
bachelor,  who  countermines  so  handsomely 
the  plots  of  Braclshavv.  The  oily  and  nau 
seous  cant  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Stoker  seems  as 
accurately  reported  as  it  could  be,  and  the  hits 
at  the  preachers  are  good  and  well-deserved. 
When  the  Rev.  Mr.  Stoker  begins  to  take  a 
too  tender  interest  in  the  rich  young  beauty, 
Myrtle  Hazard,  Mrs.  Hopkins  advises  the 
procuring  of  a  bull -dog  who  would  take  the 
seat  out  of  his  black  pantaloons  the  next  time 
he  called.  Old  Dr.  Hurlbut  adds  his  contri 
bution  to  the  good  cause  by  remarking  that 
he  always  had  to  lay  in  an  extra  stock  of 
valerian  and  assafoetida  whenever  there  was 
a  young  minister  around,  —  "for  there's 
plenty  of  religious  ravin',  says  he,  that's 
nothin'  but  hysterics."  The  vain  and  silly 
poetaster  is  hit  off  so  well  in  Gifted  Hopkins 
that  the  character  at  once  recalls  the  numer 
ous  acquaintances  of  that  genus  which  we 
have  all  had  :  the  interview  with  the  publisher 
is  full  of  the  richest  humor.  Silence  With 
ers  and  Miss  Cynthia  Badlam  seem  to  have 
been  photographed  from  the  life.  A  writer 
in  the  Spectator  thinks  that  the  character  of 


NOVELS  AND  ESSAYS.  179 

Myrtle  Hazard  is  effectually  analyzed,  but 
not  reconstructed  again  in  a  unity  of  person 
ality;  also  thinks  that  "  to  precipitate  an  old 
book-student,  however  keen  at  reading  gen 
eral  character,  into  the  task  of  unravelling 
and  countermining  the  conventional  con 
spiracy  of  a  legal  rogue  like  Murray  Brad- 
shaw  was  not  a  very  artistic  idea." 

A  writer  in  The  Nation  for  November  14, 
1867,  offered  the  following  caustic  criticism 
on  "The  Guardian  Angel  "  :  — 

"What  'goes  without  saying,'  as  the 
French  put  it,  Dr.  Holmes  is  very  apt  to 
say;  that,  we  believe,  is  the  thing  which 
chiefly  interferes  with  our  enjoyment  of  his 
works."  The  reviewer  cites  as  instances  the 
talk  of  Professor  Gridlcy.and  the  hit  at  theCal- 
vinists  in  the  dismal  ululations  of  the  hell-fire 
hymns  of  those  low-spirited  Christian  pessi 
mists,  Cousin  Silence  and  Miss  Cynthia.  "  Dr. 
Holmes,"  he  continues,  "  goes  through  his 
story,  —  too  often  bearing  on  hard  when  only 
the  lightest  touch  would  have  been  pleasing, 
not  to  say  sufferable;  sternly  breaking  on 
his  wheel  the  deadest  of  bugs  and  butterflies." 
— "  There  is  a  good  deal  of  triteness  and  dul- 


I  SO  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

ness  and  flippancy  in  his  book."  •  —  "  When  he 
had  written  '  The  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast- 
Table/  Dr.  Holmes  would  have  done  well,  as 
it  has  since  appeared,  had  he  ceased  from 
satire.  That  series  of  papers  gave  him  a 
brilliant  reputation,  which  from  that  time  for 
ward  he  has  gone  on  damaging,  diminishing 
it  by  each  new  book  ;  diminishing  the  bril 
liance  of  it,  at  any  rate,  though  it  may  well 
enough  be  that  he  has  extended  it  among 
more  people.  He  has  never  stopped  ham 
mering  on  the  same  nail  which  he  hit  on  the 
head  when  he  first  struck.  'The  Professor' 
took  away  something  from  the  estimation  in 
which  we  had  been  holding  the  'Autocrat ' ; 
'  Elsie  Venner '  took  away  a  little  more  ;  and 
1  The  Guardian  Angel '  takes  away  a  larger  por 
tion  than  was  removed  by  either  of  the  others. 
"  We  speak  of  the  author  as  a  satirist. 
That  he  is,  mainly  ;  he  is  hardly  to  be  called 
a  novelist.  His  characters  are  figures  labelled 
and  set  up  to  be  fired  at,  or  are  names  about 
which  a  love-story  is  told,  or  they  embody 
some  physiologico-psychological  theory  ;  but 
they  are  never  to  be  called  characters  in  any 
true  sense  of  the  word." 


NOVELS  AND  ESSAYS.  l8l 

The  year  1861  saw  the  opening  of  the 
Civil  War  waged  for  the  preservation  of  the 
Union  and  of  the  rights  of  man.  There  is 
nothing  like  the  glowing  furnace  of  a  great 
moral  conflict  to  purge  away  the  dross  and 
slag  from  men's  natures.  Dr.  Holmes  pos 
sesses,  or  possessed,  a  generous  share  of  those 
very  human  frailties  of  character  which  do 
so  much  to  level  distinctions  among  men. 
He  has  probably  written  and  spoken  more 
offensive  ineptitudes  about  "the  quality,"  the 
"swell-fronts,"  the  "Brahmin  caste,"  "the 
unpaved  districts,"  etc.,  than  any  other  writer 
in  America,  The  fierce  war  struggle,  and  the 
close  sympathy  it  excited  between  all  classes, 
served  to  take  a  good  deal  of  this  pride 
out  of  him.  He  says  somewhere,  "  The  camp 
is  dcprovincializing  us  very  fast.  ...  It  takes 
all  the  nonsense  out  of  everybody,  or  ought 
to  do  so,  to  see  how  fairly  the  real  manhood 
of  a  country  is  distributed  over  its  surface." 

Professor  Holmes'  attitude  on  the  slavery 
question  in  the  ante-bellum  days  is  not  wholly 
such  as  we  could  wish  it  had  been.  Like  so 
many  others  in  the  early  days  of  abolitionism, 
he  thought  that  offensive  measures  against 


1 82  OLIVER    WENDELL  HOLMES. 

the  South  would  result  disastrously  to  the 
integrity  of  the  Union.  He  therefore  took 
to  the  fence,  unwilling  to  identify  himself 
fully  with  either  party  in  the  dispute.  In  an 
address  before  the  New  England  Society  of 
New  York  City  he  expressed  admiration  for 
the  manly  logic  of  the  faction  of  the  extreme 
left,  —  the  Abolitionists,  the  "  melanophiles." 
He  said  :  "  We  have  respect  for  the  men  of  the 
extreme  party ;  namely,  the  respect  which  we 
feel  for  Othello  in  his  murderous  delusion. 
But  then  we  also  demand  consistency  in  the 
party  of  the  centre  and  the  moderate  left : 
they  should  either  annul  the  Constitution,  or 
else  keep  it  in  its  evident  spirit ;  not  act 
double,  crying  out  against  slavery,  and  yet 
clinging  to  the  Constitution." 

A  citation  from  a  very  careful  and  schol 
arly  writer  who  was  an  active  participant  in 
the  stormy  struggles  of  the  war  will  throw 
more  light  on  this  topic  than  we  can  get 
from  any  other  source  :  "  Boston,"  says  Mr. 
F.  B.  Sanborn,*  "  then  abounded  with  those 
natural  Tories,  who,  in  the  rough  dialect  of 

*  In  his  excellent  and  valuable  article  in  "The  Homes 
and  Haunts  of  our  Elder  Poets." 


NOVELS  AND  ESSAYS.  183 

their  radical  opposites,  were  styled  'Hunkers.' 
They  made  up  the  powerful  class  which  con 
trolled  the  market,  the  college,  and  the  draw 
ing-room  ;  they  opened  or  closed  at  will  the 
avenues  of  preferment  for  young  men  of  tal 
ent  ;  they  ignored  Emerson,  loathed  Garrison, 
detested  Parker,  ridiculed  Alcott  and  Mar 
garet  Fuller,  tolerated  Sumner  and  Phillips 
fora  time  on  account  of  their  talents,  and  then 
quietly  sent  them  to  Coventry.  In  this  well- 
fed,  well-bred  minority,  supported  by  a  well- 
fed,  but  ill-bred  majority,  Dr.  Holmes  was 
content  to  remain  for  years,  scoffing  at  re 
formers  now  and  then  to  please  his  audience, 
but  chafing  a  little  under  the  dull  oppression 
of  the  popular  theology,  against  which  he 
finally  revolted  as  completely  as  Theodore 
Parker  had  done  before  him.  In  his  '  Urania,' 
written  in  1846,  Dr.  Holmes  went  so  far  as  to 
denounce  John  Quincy  Adams,  by  implica 
tion,  as  an  enemy  of  the  Union,  while  that 
'old  man  eloquent '  was  fighting  the  battle  of 
freedom  in  Congress.  The  poet  exclaimed  :  — 

'  Chiefs  of  New  England  !  by  your  sires'  renown, 
Dash  the  red  torches  of  the  rebel  down  ! 
Flood  his  black  hearthstone  till  its  flames  expire, 
Though  your  old  Sachem  fanned  his  council  fire? 


184  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

"This  'old  Sachem'  was  Adams,  and  the 
'  rebel '  was  the  Abolitionist,  not  the  slave 
holder,  who  turned  out  in  fact  to  be  so.  Pat 
riotism,  always  strong  in  Dr.  Holmes,  united 
with  Toryism  to  hold  him  on  the  'Hunker' 
side  until  toward  the  beginning  of  the  Civil 
War,  or,  perhaps,  no  later  than  1857,  when 
the  anti-slavery  party  definitely  gained  control 
of  Massachusetts,  re-electing  Sumner  to  the 
Senate  almost  unanimously.  Indeed,  in  1856, 
when  Sumner  was  assaulted  by  the  South 
Carolina  bully,  Dr.  Holmes  at  a  public  dinner 
in  Boston  denounced  the  outrage  as  an  as 
sault  upon  the  Union.  And  when  the  Civil 
War  broke  out  none  stood  more  firmly  by  the 
cause  of  the  North  than  the  laughing  Profes 
sor.  He  sent  his  eldest  son  to  the  fight,  and 
saw  him  twice  or  thrice  wounded,  without 
shrinking  from  the  sacrifice  which  his  country 
demanded.  This  manly  attitude,  from  which 
Dr.  Holmes  never  receded,  atoned,  in  the 
eyes  even  of  his  cousin  Wendell  Phillips, 
for  the  early  antagonism  to  what  few  men 
then  recognized  as  the  sacred  cause  of  civili 
zation." 

Mr.  Sanborn  may  well  say  that   the  war 


NOVELS  AND  ESSAYS.  185 

record  of  Holmes  atoned  for  his  early  indif 
ference.  We  hardly  expect  poets  to  be  lovers 
of  strife,  and  it  is  not  much  wonder  that 
Holmes  took  the  attitude  he  did  toward 
abolitionism.  But  read  his  patriotic  war 
poems,  his  splendid  Fourth  of  July  Oration, 
delivered  in  Boston  in  1863,  and  his  many 
patriotic  articles  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  if 
you  would  know  how  glowing  and  earnest  was 
his  love  of  the  Union  and  of  human  rights. 
His  inherited  toryism  and  conservatism  made 
it  harder  for  him  than  for  others  to  grieve  at 
the  subjugation  of  an  inferior  class  :  as  late 
as  1882  he  was  taken  to  task  by  a  Boston 
paper  for  depreciation  of  the  Irish  in  their 
efforts  to  free  their  throats  from  the  teeth  of 
the  British  bull-dog.  But  of  his  patriotism 
no  one  can  doubt.  His  Fourth  of  July  Ora 
tion  was  delivered  at  one  of  the  gloomiest 
moments  of  the  war,  when  Lee  was  in  the 
heart  of  Pennsylvania,  and  just  before  the 
capture  of  Vicksburg.  The  argument  of  the 
oration  is  this  :  The  principle  of  self-govern 
ment  involves  the  right  of  free  discussion  and 
free  political  action.  The  exercise  of  this 
right  led  to  the  war  between  slavery  and 


1 86  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

freedom,  and  in  striving  to  preserve  the 
Union  the  North  vindicates  a  principle  fatal 
to  the  existence  of  slavery.  Hear  a  few  sen 
tences  :  — 

"  By  those  wounds  of  living  heroes,  by 
those  graves  of  fallen  martyrs,  by  the  corpses 
of  your  children,  and  the  claims  of  your  chil 
dren's  children  yet  unborn,  in  the  name  of 
outraged  honor,  in  the  interest  of  violated 
sovereignty,  for  the  life  of  an  imperilled  nation, 
for  the  sake  of  men  everywhere,  and  of  our 
common  humanity,  for  the  glory  of  God,  and 
the  advancement  of  his  kingdom  on  earth, 
your  country  calls  upon  you  to  stand  by  her 
through  good  report  and  through  evil  report, 
in  triumph  and  in  defeat." 

In  the  Atlantic  Monthly  for  October,  1861, 
Dr.  Holmes  published  an  article  entitled 
"The  Wormwood  Cordial  of  History."  It  is 
an  historical  paper,  designed  to  give  comfort 
to  the  people  of  the  North  after  their  defeat 
at  the  battle  of  Bull  Run.  The  Romans  were 
beaten  at  Lake  Trasimenus  and  at  Cannae, 
and  the  Prussians  were  beaten  at  Jena ;  yet 
both  peoples  retrieved  those  disasters,  and  so 
will  the  North.  The  fable  of  "The  Front 


NOVELS  ASD  ESSAYS.  1 87 

Teeth  and  the  Grinders  "  will  bear  repeat 
ing : — 

"  Once  on  a  time  a  mutiny  arose  among 
the  teeth  of  a  man,  in  good  health,  and 
blessed  with  a  sound  constitution,  commonly 
known  as  Uncle  Samuel.  The  cutting  teeth, 
or  incisors,  and  the  eye-teeth,  or  canines, 
though  not  nearly  so  many,  all  counted,  nor 
so  large  nor  so  strong  as  the  grinders,  and 
by  no  means  so  white,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
very  much  discolored,  began  to  find  fault 
with  the  grinders  as  not  good  enough  com 
pany  for  them.  The  eye-teeth  being  very 
sharp,  and  fitted  for  seizing  and  tearing,  and 
standing  out  taller  than  the  rest,  claimed  to 
lead  them.  Presently  one  of  them  com 
plained  that  it  ached  very  badly,  and  then 
another  and  another.  Very  soon  the  cut 
ting  teeth,  which  pretended  they  were  sup 
plied  by  the  same  nerve,  and  were  proud  of 
it,  began  to  ache  also.  They  all  agreed  that 
it  was  the  fault  of  the  grinders. 

"  About  this  time,  Uncle  Samuel,  having 
used  his  old  tooth-brush  (which  was  never  a 
good  one,  having  no  stiffness  in  the  bristles) 
for  four  years,  took  a  new  one,  recommended  to 


1 88  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

him  by  a  great  number  of  people  as  a  homely 
but  useful  article.  Thereupon  all  the  front 
teeth,  one  after  another,  declared  that  Uncle 
Samuel  meant  to  scour  them  white,  which 
was  a  thing  they  would  never  submit  to, 
though  the  whole  civilized  world  was  calling 
on  them  to  do  so.  So  they  all  insisted  on 
getting  out  of  the  sockets  in  which  they  had 
grown  and  stood  for  so  many  years.  But  the 
wisdom  teeth  spoke  up  for  the  others,  and 
said  :  — 

" '  Nay,  there  be  but  twelve  of  you  front- 
teeth,  and  there  be  twenty  of  us  grinders.  We 
are  the  strongest,  and  a  good  deal  nearest  the 
muscles  and  the  joint,  but  we  cannot  spare 
you.  We  have  put  up  with  your  black  stains, 
your  jumping  aches,  and  your  snappish  looks, 
and  now  we  are  not  going  to  let  you  go,  under 
the  pretence  that  you  are  going  to  be  scrubbed 
white  if  you  stay.  You  don't  work  half  so 
hard  as  we  do,  but  you  can  bite  the  food  well 
enough,  which  we  can  grind  so  much  better 
than  you.  We  belong  to  each  other.  You 
must  stay.' 

"  Thereupon  the  front-teeth,  first  the  ca 
nines,  or  dog-teeth,  next  the  incisors,  or  cut- 


NOVELS  AND  ESSAYS.  189 

ting-teeth,  proceeded  to  declare  themselves 
out  of  their  sockets,  and  no  longer  belonging 
to  the  jaws  of  '  Uncle  Samuel.' 

"  Then  Uncle  Samuel  arose  in  his  wrath, 
and  shut  his  jaws  tightly  together,  and  swore 
that  he  would  keep  them  shut  till  those  ach 
ing  and  discolored  teeth  of  his  went  to  pieces 
in  their  sockets,  if  need  were,  rather  than 
have  them  drawn,  standing,  as  some  of  them 
did,  at  the  very  opening  of  his  throat  and 
stomach. 

"  And  now,  if  you  will  please  to  observe, 
all  those  teeth  are  beginning  to  ache  worse 
than  ever,  and  to  decay  very  fast,  so  that  it 
will  take  a  great  deal  of  gold  to  stop  the  holes 
that  are  forming  in  them.  But  the  great 
white  grinders  are  as  sound  as  ever,  and  will 
remain  so  until  Uncle  Samuel  thinks  the  time 
has  come  for  opening  his  mouth.  In  the 
mean  time  they  keep  on  grinding  in  a  quiet 
way,  though  the  others  have  had  to  stop 
biting  for  a  long  time.  When  Uncle  Samuel 
opens  his  mouth  they  will  be  as  ready  for 
work  as  ever ;  but  those  poor  discolored 
teeth  will  be  tender  for  a  great  while,  and 
never  be  so  strong  as  they  were  before  they 


IQO  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

foolishly   declared   themselves   out   of    their 
sockets." 

"  Soundings  from  the  Atlantic "  is  the 
title  of  a  volume  made  up  chiefly  of  papers 
first  published  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly.  They 
are  very  readable, — breezy  and  light  as  well 
as  solid.  Those  on  the  photograph  and  the 
stereoscope  are  certainly  unique  in  their 
combination  of  airy  humorous  treatment  with 
solid  scientific  discussion,  or  teaching.  He 
has  made  the  subject  of  the  photograph  and 
the  stereoscope  in  their  aesthetic  relations 
peculiarly  his  own  by  the  thoroughness  and 
enthusiasm  of  his  investigations  and  experi 
ments.  On  one  page  he  gives  you  a  charm 
ingly  poetical  and  lucid  description  of  the 
way  a  photograph  is  made,  and  of  his  amateur 
apprenticeship  to  the  art;  and  on  the  next 
page  you  have  a  record  of  original  scientific 
observations  and  studies.  It  is  probably 
known  to  but  few  that  to  Dr.  Holmes'  invent 
ive  genius  we  owe  the  stereoscope  in  the 
convenient  form  in  which  it  is  now  made ; 
the  public  obtained  his  improvements  unpat- 
ented,  and  consequently  at  a  lower  price. 
There  is  room  for  but  a  single  paragraph 


JfOVELS  AND  ESSAYS.  IQI 

from  the  article  on  the  stereoscope  and  the 
stereograph  :  — 

"  We  were  just  now  stercographed  our 
selves,  at  a  moment's  warning,  as  if  we  were 
fugitives  from  justice.  A  skeleton  shape,  of 
about  a  man's  height,  its  head  covered  with  a 
black  veil,  glided  across  the  floor,  faced  us, 
lifted  its  veil,  and  took  a  preliminary  look. 
When  we  had  grown  sufficiently  rigid  in  our 
attitude  of  studied  ease,  and  got  our  umbrella 
into  a  position  of  thoughtful  carelessness,  and 
put  our  features  with  much  effort  into  an  un 
constrained  aspect  of  cheerfulness  tempered 
with  dignity,  of  manly  firmness  blended  with 
womanly  sensibility,  of  courtesy,  as  much  as 
to  imply,  '  You  know  me,  sir,'  toned  or  sized, 
as  one  may  say,  with  something  of  the  self- 
assertion  of  a  human  soul  which  reflects 
proudly,  '  I  am  superior  to  all  this,'  —  when,  I 
say,  we  were  all  right,  the  spectral  Mokanna 
dropped  his  long  veil,  and  his  waiting  slave 
put  a  sensitive  tablet  under  its  folds." 

From  an  article  on  "  Sun-Painting  and  Sun- 
Sculpture"  the  following  is  extracted  :  — 

"  We  may  regard  those  shadows  of  bodies 
which  arc  fixed  by  photography  as  films,  or 


OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

subtle  effluences,  thrown  off  from  the  bodies 
themselves.  Hence,  we  may  say  that  "  we 
lift  an  impalpable  scale  from  the  surface  of  the 
Pyramids.  We  slip  off  from  the  dome  of  St. 
Peter's  that  other  imponderable  dome  which 
fitted  it  so  closely  that  it  betrays  every  scratch 
on  the  original.  We  skim  off  a  thin,  dry 
cuticle  from  the  rapids  of  Niagara,  and  lay  it 
on  our  unmoistened  paper  without  breaking  a 
bubble  or  losing  a  speck  of  foam.  We  steal 
a  landscape  from  its  lawful  owners,  and  defy 
the  charge  of  dishonesty.  We  skin  the  flints 
by  the  wayside,  and  nobody  accuses  us  of 
meanness." 

An  amusing  chapter  in  "Soundings"  is 
the  "  Visit  to  the  Asylum  for  Aged  and  De 
cayed  Punsters."  Here  are  some  of  the  puns 
of  the  afflicted  inmates  :  — 

" '  Don't  you  see  Webster  ers  in  the  words 
center  and  theatrrf 

" '  If  he  spells  leather  Icthcr,  and  feather 
fethcr,  isn't  there  danger  that  he'll  give  us 
a  bad  spell  of  weather  ? 

"  '  Look  ! '  said  the  Director,  — '  that  is  our 
Centenarian.' 

"  The   ancient   man   crawled   towards   us, 


NOVELS  AXD  ESSATS.  193 

cocked  one  eye,  with  which  he  seemed  to  see 
a  little,  up  at  us,  and  said,  — 

"  '  Sarvant,  young  gentleman.  Why  is  a  — 
a  —  a  —  like  a  —  a — a — ?  Give  it  up  ?  Be 
cause  it's  a  —  a  —  a  —  a  — . ' 

"  He  smiled  a  pleasant  smile,  as  if  it  were 
all  plain  enough. 

"  '  One  hundred  and  seven  last  Christmas,' 
said  the  Director." 

As  the  Autocrat  assures  us  that  a  pun 
does  not  commonly  justify  a  blow  in  return, 
we  are  encouraged  to  quote  here  two  or  three 
good  ones  from  his  own  poems,  as  this :  — 

"  Long  metre  answers  for  a  common  song, 
Though  common  metre  does  not  answer  long." 

Or  this: - 

"  Thus  great  Achilles,  who  had  shown  his  zeal 
In  healing  wounds,  died  of  a  wounded  heel." 

Or  this  first  stanza  from  the  poem  read  at 
the    meeting    of    the    Harvard    Alumni    in 
1857:  — 
"  I  thank  you,  Mr.  President,  you've  kindly  broke 

the  ice ; 
Virtue   should   always   be   the   first,  —  I'm   only 

SECOND  VICE  — 


IQ4  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

(A  vice  is  something  with  a  screw  that's  made  to 

hold  its  jaw 
Till  some  old  file  has  played  away  upon  an  ancient 

saw.)  " 

There  are  two  more  interesting  papers  in 
"Soundings  from  the  Atlantic."  "The  Hu 
man  Wheel,  its  Spokes  and  Felloes,"  is  an 
interesting  illustrated  paper  about  human 
locomotion  with  special  "reference  to  the 
wooden  leg  invented  by  B.  F.  Palmer,  and  to 
the  shoe-lasts  of  Dr.  J.  C.  Plumer.  Palmer's 
wooden  leg  seems  to  be  as  great  a  wonder  in 
its  way  as  that  wonderful  golden  limb  of  Miss 
Kilmansegg.  The  following  sentences  of  Dr. 
I  lolmes  explain  the  title  of  his  article  :  "  Man," 
he  says,  "  is  a  wheel  with  two  spokes,  his  legs, 
and  two  fragments  of  a  tire,  his  feet.  He 
rolls  successively  on  each  of  these  fragments 
from  the  heel  to  the  toe.  If  he  had  spokes 
enough,  he  would  go  round  and  round  as  the 
boys  do  when  they  '  make  a  wheel '  with 
their  four  limbs  for  its  spokes." 

"  The  Great  Instrument "  is  a  paper  de 
scribing  Walckcr's  organ  in  Music  Hall,  Bos 
ton.  The  organ  is  a  choir  of  nearly  six 


HOVELS  AND  ESSAYS.  195 

thousand  vocal  throats,  four  key-boards,  two 
pedals,  and  twelve  pairs  of  bellows.  The 
facade  was  designed  by  the  Herter  Brothers 
and  Hammatt  Billings. 

Two  or  three  articles  put  forth  in  1864 
call  for  notice.  "  The  Minister  Plenipo 
tentiary  "  is  an  eulogium  of  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  for  his  valuable  services  to  the 
Union  in  Great  Britain.  Dr.  Holmes  calls 
his  visit  "a  more  remarkable  embassy  than 
that  of  any  envoy  who  has  represented 
us  in  Europe  since  Franklin  pleaded  the 
cause  of  the  young  Republic  at  the  Court  of 
Versailles."  The  essayist  gives  a  lively  and 
complete  account  of  Mr.  Beecher's  impas 
sioned  speeches  in  the  great  centres  of  Britain, 
and  tells  how  the  populace  covered  the  walls 
in  London  with  blood-red,  threatening  pla 
cards  and  hired  their  "Chokers,"  their  "  Hust 
lers,"  and  their  burglars  to  waylay  him. 

"Our  Progressive  Independence"  is  a  long 
and  thoughtful  paper  on  the  relation  of  Great 
Britain  to  our  own  country,  and  was  suggested 
by  the  blind  and  selfish  policy  of  the  mother- 
country  in  respect  of  our  Civil  War.  Alluding 
to  the  stimulus  to  invention  which  constitu- 


196  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

tional  freedom  from  Great  Britain  necessarily 
produced  among  us,  the  essayist  says  that  the 
Yankee  whittling  a  shingle  with  his  jack- 
knife  has  been  regarded  as  a  caricature,  but 
that  it  is  in  fact  an  unconscious  symbolization 
of  the  plastic  or  inventive  instinct  which  rises 
by  gradations  from  the  shingle  to  the  clothes 
pin,  the  apple-parer,  the  mowing-machine, 
the  wooden  truss-bridge,  the  clipper-ship, 
the  carved  figure-head,  the  Cleopatra  of  the 
World's  Exhibition. 

One  invention  especially,  the  discovery 
of  anaesthesia,  or  the  administering  of  ether 
for  the  alleviation  of  pain,  goes  far  in  itself 
alone  toward  paying  back  the  debt  we  owe  to 
the  Old  World.  One  evening  in  October, 
1846,  says  the  Doctor,  a  professional  brother 
called  upon  him  ;  shutting  the  door  carefully, 
he  looked  nervously  around,  and  then  told  of 
the  wonderful  discovery  in  the  operating- 
room  whereby  a  patient  could  be  made  pleas 
antly  and  safely  insensible  to  pain  for  a 
limited  period.  He  produced  a  communica 
tion  which  he  had  just  written  out  for  a 
learned  society  in  Boston,  the  first  ever  drawn 
up  on  the  subject.  "  In  one  fortnight's  time," 


NOVELS  AND  ESSAYS.  197 

he  said,  "all  Europe  will  be  ablaze  with  this 
discovery " ;  and  so  it  proved  ;  in  a  few 
weeks  every  surgeon  in  the  world  knew  the 
miraculous  process.  So  much  for  one  dis 
covery,  and  one  step  in  our  progressive  in 
dependence. 

As  for  our  early  political  literature,  it  is  no 
wonder  that  the  British  did  not  understand 
its  power  and  beauty.  They  did  not  under 
stand  their  own  constitution  until  De  Lolme, 
a  Swiss  exile,  explained  it  to  them.  "  One 
British  tourist  after  another  visited  this  coun 
try,  with  his  eye-glass  at  his  eye,  and  his 
small  vocabulary  of  '  Very  odd  ! '  for  all  that 
was  new  to  him ;  his  '  Quite  so  ! '  for  what 
ever  was  noblest  in  thought  and  deed ;  his 
1  Very  clever ! '  for  the  encouragement  of 
genius ;  and  his  '  All  that  sort  of  thing,  you 
know ! '  for  the  less  marketable  virtues  and 
heroisms  not  to  be  found  in  the  Cockney 
price-current.  They  came,  they  saw,  they 
made  their  books,  but  no  man  got  from  them 
any  correct  idea  of  what  the  Great  Republic 
meant  in  the  history  of  civilization.  For  this 
the  British  people  had  to  wait  until  De 
Tocqueville,  a  Frenchman,  made  it  in  some 


198  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

degree  palpable  to  English  comprehension." 
The  odious  sneers  of  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson,  in 
his  "  Taxation  no  Tyranny,"  Holmes  whim 
sically  calls  "The  coprolites  of  a  literary 
megatherium."  Johnson  was  succeeded  by 
Carlyle  —  a  man  whom  his  elephantine  pre 
decessor  in  London  would  have  hated  for  his 
nationality,  and  knocked  down  with  his  dic 
tionary  for  his  assaults  on  the  English 
language.  Dr.  Holmes  thinks  Prescott  did 
more  than  any  other  to  establish  the  inde 
pendence  of  American  literature.  He  was 
the  first  who  worked  with  an  adequate  literary 
apparatus,  and  at  the  same  time  cast  his 
costly  and  learned  researches  in  a  pictorial 
and  popular  form.  It  was  not  however  from 
England,  but  from  the  Continent  of  Europe, 
that  the  recognition  of  his  genius  first  came. 
The  essay  closes  with  a  reference  to  the  fact 
that  the  attitude  of  England  toward  us  in  the 
Civil  War,  the  dense  ignorance  of  us  and 
our  affairs  that  it  betrayed,  and  the  blind 
contempt  which  always  accompanies  igno 
rance,  served  completely  to  destroy  in  the 
minds  of  our  people  that  implicit  and  unques 
tioning  deference  to  English  standards  and 


NOVELS  AND  ESSAYS.  199 

models  which  had  so  long  characterized  us  as 
a  nation. 

Professor  Holmes  was  one  of  the  illustrious 
company  that  followed  the  remains  of  the 
author  of  "  The  Scarlet  Letter "  to  their 
final  resting-place  in  Sleepy  Hollow.  With 
the  closing  paragraph  of  the  unfinished 
"Dolliver  Romance,"  says  Dr.  Holmes,  "the 
mystic  music  of  the  poet's  voice  is  suddenly 
hushed,  and  we  seem  to  hear  instead  the 
tolling  of  a  bell  in  the  far  distance.  The  pro 
cession  of  shadowy  characters  which  was 
gathering  in  our  imaginations  about  the 
ancient  man  and  the  little  child  who  come  so 
clearly  before  our  sight  seems  to  fade  away, 
and  in  its  place  a  slow-pacing  train  winds 
through  the  village-road  and  up  the  wooded 
hillside  until  it  stops  at  a  little  opening 
among  the  tall  trees.  There  the  bed  is  made 
in  which  he  whose  dreams  had  peopled  our 
common  life  with  shapes  and  thoughts  of 
beauty  and  wonder  is  to  take  his  rest.  .  .  . 

"  The  day  of  his  burial  was  the  bridal  day  of 
the  season,  perfect  in  light  as  if  heaven  were 
looking  on,  perfect  in  air  as  if  Nature  herself 


200  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

were  sighing  for  our  loss.  The  orchards  were 
all  in  fresh  flower, 

*  One  boundless  bliish,  one  white-empurpled  shower 
Of  mingled  blossoms  ' ; 

the  banks  were  literally  blue  with  violets  ;  the 
elms  were  putting  out  their  tender  leaves, 
just  in  that  passing  aspect  which  Raphael 
loved  to  pencil  in  the  backgrounds  of  his  holy 
pictures,  not  as  yet  printing  deep  shadows, 
but  only  mottling  the  sunshine  at  their  feet. 
The  birds  were  in  full  song ;  the  pines  were 
musical  with  the  soft  winds  they  sweetened. 
All  was  in  faultless  accord,  and  every  heart 
was  filled  with  the  beauty  that  flooded  the 
landscape." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

BEACON    STREET. 

DOWN  the  hill  crowned  by  the  State  House, 
Beacon  Street  stretches  straight  away  west 
ward  for  a  mile  or  more.  For  the  first  half 
of  that  distance  it  skirts  the  Common  and 
the  beautiful,  flower-filled  Public  Garden,  and 
has  at  its  side  a  great  elm-arched  tunnel  of 
leaves,  —  the  Beacon  Street  mall,  most  de 
lightful  of  walks.  It  is  a  fine  sight  to  stand 
at  night  at  the  head  of  the  street  and  see  the 
long  fairy-like  perspective  of  golden  lamp- 
globes  winking  and  gleaming  as  if  to  rival  the 
stars  above  them.  On  pleasant  afternoons, 
too,  you  will  see  the  wealth  and  blood  (equine 
and  human)  of  the  city  on  this  street.  The 
people  in  the  carriages  are  mostly  free 
from  the  melancholy,  corpse-like  appearance 
of  their  Fifth  Avenue  brethren ;  and  the 
equestrians  and  the  pedestrians  —  where  will 
you  see  ruddier  and  manlier  physiques,  or 
happier,  healthier  children  ?  Yet  to  one 

201 


202  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

coming  suddenly  into  Beacon  Street  from 
thoughtful  Cambridge,  from  the  aristocracy  of 
mind  to  the  aristocracy  of  wealth,  a  slight 
lowering  of  the  intellectual  temperature  is 
perceptible.  As  for  the  people,  they  are 
either  a  community  of  happy  drones  in  the 
national  hive,  or  they  are  engaged  in  severe 
mental  toil  for  the  benefit  of  the  republic. 
Which  is  it  ?  But  however  it  may  be  with 
others,  the  reproach  of  idleness  cannot  be 
visited  upon  one  inhabitant,  at  least,  of  this 
street ;  for  in  the  brick  house  numbered  296, 
situated  on  that  extension  of  Beacon  Street 
which  formerly  went  by  the  name  of  the  Mill 
Dam,  lives  the  laureate  of  Boston,  the  white- 
haired  poet  of  a  hundred  civic  banquets,  pro 
lific  author,  honored  ex-professor,  the  sun 
niest-hearted  man  in  the  city,  and  one  of  the 
most  popular.  Professor  Holmes  removed 
from  164  Charles  Street  to  his  Beacon  Street 
residence  in  1871.  There  is  a  tiny  grass-plot 
in  front  of  the  house,  and  in  small  letters  over 
the  door-bell  is  the  familiar  name.  Entering 
by  a  spacious  hall,  the  visitor,  if  on  terms  of 
intimacy,  is  ushered  into  the  study  in  the  rear 
of  the  house.  The  room  is  light  and  cheer- 


BEACON  STREET.  203 

ful,  its  bay -window  giving  directly  upon  the 
River  Charles,  with  Memorial  Tower  in  Cam 
bridge  looming  up  in  the  distance  ;  —  the  old 
view,  you  see,  and  one  which  the  poet  has 
enjoyed  now  for  twenty-three  years.  Let 
him  describe  one  phase  of  it  as  seen  from  the 
Beacon  Street  study  :  — 

"Through    my    north    window,    in    the    wintry 

weather,  — 

My  airy  oriel  on  the  river  shore,  — 
I  watch  the  sea-fowl  as  they  flock  together 

Where  late  the  boatman  flashed  his  dripping 
oar. 

"  The  gull,  high  floating,  like  a  sloop  unladen, 
Lets  the  loose  water  waft  him  as  it  will ; 
The  duck,  round-breasted  as  a  rustic  maiden, 
Paddles  and  plunges,  busy,  busy  still. 

"  I  see  the  solemn  gulls  in  council  sitting 

On  some  broad  ice-floe,  pondering  long  and 

late, 

While  overhead  the  home-bound  ducks  are  flit 
ting, 
And  leave  the  tardy  conclave  in  debate, 


204  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

"  Those  weighty  questions  in  their  breasts  revolv 
ing 

Whose  deeper  meaning  science  never  learns, 
Till  at  some  reverend  elder's  look  dissolving, 
The  speechless  senate  silently  adjourns." 

Besides  the  bay-window  the  study  has  two 
circular  windows  which  throw  light  upon  the 
alcoves  between  the  bookcases,  as  well  as 
upon  the  microscopical  apparatus  which 
stands  ready  for  its  owner's  use.  Three 
sides  of  the  apartment  are  completely  lined 
with  books, — 

"  A  mingled  race,  the  wreck  of  chance  and  time, 
That  talk  all  tongues  and  breathe  of  every  clime, 
Each  knows  his  place,  and  each  may  claim  his 

part 
In  some  quaint  corner  of  his  master's  heart." 

The  Study. 

Dr.  Holmes'  private  library  is  rich  in  rare 
medical  treatises  and  in  literary  treasures : 
his  readers  will  find  references  to  these  books 
scattered  all  through  his  works.  The  writing- 
desk  is  in  the  centre  of  the  room,  and  over  it 
hangs  a  drop-light.  There  are  easy  chairs,  and 


BEACON  STREET.  205 

lambrequins,  and  a  large  mirror  over  the  fire 
place,  while  near  the  door  hangs  the  original 
portrait  of  "Dorothy  Q."  Another  portrait 
in  the  room  is  by  Copley,  and  represents  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  Cooper,  who  was  a  friend 
of  Benjamin  Franklin,  and  preached  in  the 
Brattle  Street  Church  to  some  of  the  ancestors 
of  Dr.  Holmes.  In  the  drawing-room  just 
across  the  hall  from  the  library  are  to  be  seen 
some  fine  reproductions  of  paintings  of  the 
old  masters,  made  by  a  peculiar  process. 

"  The  Poet  at  the  Breakfast-Table  "  (1873) 
was  first  published,  like  its  predecessors,  in 
periodical  instalments.  It  is  the  weakest 
work  of  the  Breakfast-Table  Series,  and 
much  of  it  had  better  have  been  left  un 
written.  The  vein  has  been  worked  so  long 
that  it  "pans  out"  —  nothing,  or  next  to 
nothing.  We  manage  to  work  up  a  trifle  of 
sympathy  for  the  Little  Gentleman,  and  take 
an  interest  in  a  few  brilliant  parts  of  the 
work :  the  poem  called  "  Epilogue  to  the 
Breakfast-Table  Series  "  is  capital ;  but  these 
are  redeeming  features  in  an  intolerably  dull 
book,  in  which  the  continual  straining  after 
effect  wearies  us,  and  the  homilies  and  dull 


206  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

commonplaces  of  experience  make  us  yawn, 
and  anxiously  measure,  from  time  to  time, 
with  thumb  and  finger,  the  amount  still  left 
to  be  read.  Dr.  Holmes  has  written  many 
fine  and  valuable  papers  since  1873,  but  cer 
tainly  about  that  time  people  would  have 
been  justified  in  quoting  against  him  two 
lines  of  his  own  :  — 

"  *  Why  won't  he  stop  writing  ? '  Humanity  cries  ; 
The  answer  is  briefly,  '  He  can't  if  he  tries.' " 

But  the  reader  shall  have  one  or  two  fine 
extracts  from  the  "  Poet  at  the  Breakfast- 
Table."  First,  a  description  of  the  piano- 
player  :  — 

"  I  have  been  to  hear  some  music-pounding. 
It  was  a  young  woman,  with  as  many  white 
muslin  flounces  around  her  as  the  planet 
Saturn  has  rings,  that  did  it.  She  gave  the 
music-stool  a  twirl  or  two,  and  fluffed  down 
on  to  it  like  a  whirl  of  soapsuds  in  a  hand- 
basin.  Then  she  pushed  up  her  cuffs  as  if 
she  was  going  to  fight  for  the  champion's 
belt.  Then  she  worked  her  wrists  and  her 
hands,  to  limber  'em,  I  suppose,  and  spread 
out  her  fingers  till  they  looked  as  though 


BEACOX  STREET.  2O/ 

they  would  pretty  much  cover  the  key-board, 
from  the  growling  end  to  the  little  squeaking 
one.  Then  those  two  hands  of  hers  made  a 
jump  at  the  keys  as  if  they  were  a  couple  of 
tigers  coming  down  on  a  flock  of  black  and 
white  sheep,  and  the  piano  gave  a  great  howl 
as  if  its  tail  had  been  trod  on.  Dead  stop,  — 
so  still  you  could  hear  your  hair  growing. 
Then  another  jump,  and  another  howl,  as  if 
the  piano  had  two  tails,  and  you  had  trod  on 
both  of  'em  at  once,  and  then  a  grand  clatter 
and  scramble  and  string  of  jumps,  up  and 
down,  back  and  forward,  one  hand  over  the 
other,  like  a  stampede  of  rats  and  mice  more 
than  like  anything  I  call  music." 

Next,  a  whimsical  account  of  a  poor  ghost 
who  visits  a  library  some  years  after  his  de 
parture  from  the  body,  and  discovers,  to  his 
indignation,  the  stupid  blunders  that  have 
been  made  by  his  biographer  :  — 

"  '  Bom  in  July \  f??6  ! '  And  my  honored 
father  killed  at  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill ! 
Atrocious  libeller !  to  slander  one's  family  at 
the  start  after  such  a  fashion ! 

"T/ie  dcatk  of  his  parents  left  him  in 
charge  of  his  Aunt  Nancy,  whose  tender  care 


208  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

took  the  place  of  those  parental  attentions 
wJiich  should  have  guided  and  protected  his 
infant  years,  and  consoled  him  for  the  severity 
of  another  relative' 

" — Aunt  Nancy!  It  was  Aunt  Betsey, 
you  fool!  Aunt  Nancy  used  to  —  she  has 
been  dead  these  eighty  years,  so  there  is  no 
use  in  mincing  matters  —  she  used  to  keep  a 
bottle  and  Astick,  and  when  she  had  been 
tasting  a  drop  out  of  the  bottle  the  stick  used 
to  come  off  of  the  shelf,  and  I  had  to  taste  that. 
And  here  she  is  made  a  saint  of,  and  poor 
Aunt  Betsey,  that  did  everything  for  me,  is 
slandered  by  implication  as  a  horrid  tyrant ! 

"  '  The  subject  of  this  commemorative  history 
was  remarkable  for  a  precocious  development 
of  intelligence.  An  old  nurse,  who  saw  him 
at  tJie  very  earliest  period  of  Jiis  existence,  is 
said  to  have  spoken  of  him  as  one  of  the  most 
promising  infants  she  had  seen  in  her  long  ex 
perience.  At  school  he  was  equally  remark 
able,  and  at  a  tender  age  he  received  a  paper 
adorned  with  a  cut,  inscribed  REWARD  OF 
MERIT.' 

—  "I  don't  doubt  the  nurse  said  that, — 
there  were  several  promising  children  born 


BEACOX  STREET.  2OQ 

about  that  time.  As  for  cuts,  I  got  more 
from  the  schoolmaster's  rattan  than  in  any 
other  shape.  Didn't  one  of  'em  split  a  Gun- 
ter's  scale  into  three  pieces  over  the  palm  of 
my  hand  ?  And  didn't  I  grin  when  I  saw  the 
pieces  fly  ?  No  humbug,  now,  about  my  boy 
hood  ! " 

The  only  wonder  is  that  the  penning  of 
the  foregoing  lines  did  not  bring  down  at 
once  upon  the  Autocrat  an  army  of  biogra 
phers,  with  assurances  of  sympathy,  and  with 
the  offer  of  immediate  justice  in  the  shape  of 
a  hot-pressed,  gilt-edged  biography,  to  be  writ 
ten  in  the  warm  present,  when  there  is  little 
chance  of  error  respecting  Aunt  Nancy  and 
Aunt  Betsey. 

In  an  appreciative  review  of  "  Exotics,"  a 
little  book  of  delicate  poetical  translations, 
by  James  Freeman  Clarke,  and  his  daughter, 
Miss  L.  Clarke,  Dr.  Holmes  has  embodied 
(in  the  Atlantic  for  September,  1875)  a  de 
scription  of  the  poet's  state  of  mind  and  body 
when  writing,  which  will  be  recognized  by  all 
who  have  indulged  in  poetical  creation  as 
true  in  all  its  details.  It  is  impossible  to 
condense  or  rewrite  this  bit  of  analysis.  He 


2IO  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

says  that,  when  composing,  the  poet  is  a 
medium,  a  clairvoyant.  "  The  will  is  first 
called  in  requisition  to  exclude  interfering 
outward  impressions  and  alien  trains  of 
thought.  After  a  certain  time  the  second 
state  or  adjustment  of  the  poet's  double  con 
sciousness  (for  he  has  two  states,  just  as  the 
somnambulists  have)  sets  up  its  own  auto 
matic  movement,  with  its  special  trains  of 
ideas  and  feelings  in  the  thinking  and  emo 
tional  centres.  As  soon  as  the  fine  frenzy, 
or  quasi  trance-state,  is  fairly  established,  the 
consciousness  watches  the  torrent  of  thoughts 
and  arrests  the  ones  wanted,  singly  with  their 
fitting  expression,  or  in  groups  of  fortunate 
sequences  which  he  cannot  better  by  after 
treatment.  As  the  poetical  vocabulary  is 
limited,  and  its  plasticity  lends  itself  only  to 
certain  moulds,  the  mind  works  under  great 
difficulty,  at  least  until  it  has  acquired  by 
practice  such  handling  of  language  that  every 
possibility  of  rhythm  or  rhyme  offers  itself 
actually  or  potentially  to  the  clairvoyant  per 
ception  simultaneously  with  the  thought  it  is 
to  embody.  Thus  poetical  composition  is  the 
most  intense,  the  most  exciting,  and  there- 


BE  AC  OX  STREET.  211 

fore  the  most  exhausting  of  mental  exercises. 
It  is  exciting  because  its  mental  states  are  a 
series  of  revelations  and  surprises  ;  intense 
on  account  of  the  double  strain  upon  the  at 
tention.  The  poet  is  not  the  same  man  who 
seated  himself  an  hour  ago  at  his  desk,  with 
the  dust-cart  and  the  gutter,  or  the  duck-pond 
and  the  hay-stack  and  the  barnyard  fowls  be 
neath  his  window.  He  is  in  the  forest  with 
the  song-birds  ;  he  is  on  the  mountain-top  with 
the  eagles.  He  sat  down  in  rusty  broadcloth, 
he  is  arrayed  in  the  imperial  purple  of  his 
singing  robes.  Let  him  alone  now  if  you  are 
wise,  for  you  might  as  "well  have  pushed  the 
arm  that  was  finishing  the  smile  of  a  Ma 
donna,  or  laid  a  rail  before  a  train  that  had  a 
queen  on  board,  as  thrust  your  untimely  ques 
tion  on  this  half  cataleptic  child  of  the  muse, 
who  hardly  knows  whether  he  is  in  the  body 
or  out  of  the  body.  And  do  not  wonder  if, 
when  the  fit  is  over,  he  is  in  some  respects 
like  one  who  is  recovering  after  an  excess  of 
the  baser  stimulants.  .  .  .  '  Song  intoxicates 
the  poet.'  His  brain  rings  with  it  for  hours 
or  days  or  weeks  after  it  has  chimed  itself 
through  his  consciousness.  The  vibration 


212  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

dies  away  gradually  like  the  tremor  of  a  bell 
which  has  been  struck,  and  the  medium  comes 
to  himself  again.  What  a  pity  that  the  pas 
sion  and  the  fever  and  the  delirium  are  not  a 
measure  of  the  excellence  of  the  product  of 
the  poetic  trance  !  " 

A  valuable  and  unique  article  by  Dr.  Holmes 
on  the  "  Physiology  of  Versification  and  the 
Harmonies  of  Organic  and  Animal  Life " 
should  be  rescued  from  the  pages  of  the  Bos 
ton  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal  (January  7, 
1875).  .  Following  is  an  abstract  of  it:  The 
secret  of  our  success  or  failure  as  social  be 
ings  depends  far  more  largely  on  our  bodily 
health  than  our  friends  suppose. 

The  rhythmical  movements  of  the  respira 
tion  and  the  pulse  are  the  time-keepers  of  the 
body,  with  a  constant  ratio  of  one  inspiration 
to  every  four  beats  of  the  heart. 

Respiration  has  an  intimate  relation  to  the 
structure  of  metrical  compositions.  The  rea 
son  why  octosyllabic  verse  is  so  easy  to  read 
aloud  is  that  it  follows  more  exactly  than  any 
other  measure  the  natural  rhythm  of  the  res 
piration.  In  reading,  for  example,  such  eight- 
syllable  verse  as  that  of  "  In  Memoriam,"  or 


BEACON  STREET.  213 

"The  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel,"  it  is  found 
that  about  twenty  lines  can  be  uttered  in  a 
minute  ;  now  the  average  number  of  expira 
tions  a  minute  is  also  twenty,  showing  that 
one  line  is  read  for  each  expiration,  with  an 
inspiration  at  the  end  of  the  line.  The  pecu 
liar  majesty  of  the  ten-syllable,  or  heroic  line, 
comes  from  the  fact  that  its  pronunciation 
requires  a  longer  respiration  than  ordinary  ; 
hence  a  sense  of  effort  and  slowness.  The 
caesura  comes  in  at  irregular  intervals,  to  be 
sure,  and  serves  as  a  breathing-place,  but 
its  management  requires  care  in  reading, 
and  entirely  breaks  up  the  natural  rhythm 
of  breathing.  The  fourteen-syllable  line  of 
Chapman's  Homer  and  of  our  hymn-books 
("common  metre")  is  exceedingly  easy  read 
ing,  because  broken  up  into  short,  alter 
nate  lines  of  six  and  eight  syllables.  The 
twelve-syllable  line  —  that  of  Drayton's  Poly- 
olbion  —  is  the  most  irksome  of  all,  owing 
to  its  unphysiological  construction.  The 
fourteen-syllable  line  we  easily  divide  in  half 
in  reading,  but  the  twelve-syllable  one  is 
too  much  for  one  expiration  and  not  enough 
for  two,  and  for  this  reason  has  been  instinct- 


214  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

ively  avoided  by  nearly  all  poets.  Parts  of 
Tennyson's  "  Maud  "  are  written  in  fourteen 
and  seventeen-syllable  verse,  and  are  very 
difficult  to  read  aloud. 

But  then  there  is  the  personal  equation  to 
be  taken  into  the  account.  A  person  of 
ample  chest  and  quiet  temperament  may 
breathe  habitually  only  fourteen  times  in  a 
minute,  and  to  him  the  heroic  measure  will 
be  very  easy  reading ;  whereas  a  narrow- 
chested,  nervous  person,  breathing  oftener 
than  twenty  times  a  minute,  may  find  such 
seven-syllable  verse  as  that  of  Dyer's  "Gron- 
garHill"  more  agreeable  to  his  respiration 
than  the  heroic  line  ;  and  a  quick-breathing 
child  will  recite  with  pleasure  Mother  Goose 
melodies  when  long  metres  would  make  it 
catch  its  breath.  Perhaps  there  may  be 
other  organic  rhythms  ;  perhaps  accent  is 
suggested  by  or  connected  with  the  move 
ments  of  the  pulse ;  it  is  a  fact  that  twenty 
acts  of  respiration  correspond  to  eighty  arte 
rial  pulsations,  and  that  twenty  eight-syllable 
lines,  corresponding  to  these  eighty  pulsations, 
have  exactly  eighty  accents.  Finally,  there  is 
the  well-known  coincidence  between  the  aver- 


BEACON  STREET.  215 

age  pulsations  of  the  arteries  and  the  number 
of  steps  taken  in  a  minute ;  as  we  increase 
the  rapidity  of  our  steps,  the  heart  increases 
the  rapidity  of  its  beats. 

In  1879  the  publishers  of  the  Atlantic 
Monthly,  with  which  Dr.  Holmes  had  been 
associated  as  a  contributor  ever  since  its  es 
tablishment,  twenty-two  years  previously,  re 
solved  to  give  a  breakfast  in  honor  of  the 
Autocrat's  seventieth  birthday,  and  the  third 
day  of  December  was  chosen  as  a  more  con 
venient  time  than  August  the  twenty-ninth  for 
the  celebration  of  the  event.  The  breakfast 
was  given  at  the  Hotel  Brunswick,  in  the 
richly  and  massively  furnished  parlors  of 
which  the  reception  took  place,  previous  to 
the  adjournment  to  the  dining-room.  Dr. 
Holmes  and  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Sargent, 
received  the  one  hundred  guests  of  the  occa 
sion,  and  were  assisted  in  that  ceremony  by 
Mrs.  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  Ralph  Waldo 
Kmerson,  John  G.  Whittier,  and  Mrs.  Julia 
Ward  Howe.  The  breakfast  proper  lasted 
from  one-and-a-half  to  four  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon.  The  six  tables  —  four  of  them 
lengthwise,  and  two  crosswise  —  were  well 


2l6  OLIVER    WENDELL  HOLMES. 

filled  (the  Autocrat  at  the  head),  and  the 
masculine  black  of  the  company  was  relieved 
by  a  sprinkle  here  and  there  of  bright  fem 
inine  colors.  Mr.  H.  O.  Houghton  and  Mr. 
W.  D.  Howells  presided,  —  Mr.  Houghton 
being  seated  between  Dr.  Holmes  and  Mrs. 
Stowe,  and  Mr.  Howells  between  Mr.  Emer 
son  and  Mrs.  Howe.  Nearly  every  author  of 
eminence  in  America  was  either  present  in 
person,  or  sent  a  letter  of  regret  and  con 
gratulation.  The  picture  of  this  flowery  ban 
quet,  where  .sat  the  laureate  of  Boston,  sur 
rounded  by  the  most  eminent  authors  of 
America,  many  of  them  the  cherished  friends 
of  a  lifetime,  gives  one  a  great  sense  of  sat 
isfaction,  as  one  thinks  of  it ;  the  idea 
so  happy,  so  fitting.  The  generous  rivalry  of 
the  tributes,  the  unusual  excellence  of  the 
poems  and  the  speeches,  and  the  sunshine 
diffused  over  the  whole  by  the  genial  presence 
of  him  who  had  for  a  lifetime  been  the  light 
and  soul  of  a  long  series  of  similar  happy  occa 
sions,  —  all  these  things  combined  to  make  the 
Holmes  Breakfast  the  crowning  event  of  the 
kind  in  the  literary  history  of  the  city.  The 
poem  read  by  Dr.  Holmes  is  (perhaps  with 


BE  A  COy  -  S  TREE  T.  2 1  / 

the  exception  of  " The  Chambered  Nautilus") 
the  finest  creation  of  his  genius.  Where  in 
all  literature  will  you  find  a  more  exquisite 
poetical  description  of  old  age  than  in  "  The 
Iron  Gate  "  ?  Where  finer  imagery,  melody, 
pathos  ?  — 

"  Still  as  the  silver  cord  gets  worn  and  slender, 
Its   lightened   task-work   tugs   with    lessening 

strain, 
Hands   get   more    helpful,    voices,   grown    more 

tender, 

Soothe  with  their  softened  tones  the  slumberous 
brain." 

Youth    longs   and    manhood  strives,  but  age  re 
members, 

Sits  by  the  raked-up  ashes  of  the  past, 
Spreads  its  thin  hands  above  the  whitening  em 
bers 
That  warm  its  creeping  life-blood  till  the  last. 

But  Nature  lends  her  mirror  of  illusion 

To  win  from  saddening  scenes  our  age-dimmed 
eyes, 

And  misty  day-dreams  blend  in  sweet  confusion 
The  wintry  landscape  and  the  summer  skies. 


2l8  OLIVER    WENDELL   HOLMES. 

So  when  the  iron  portal  shuts  behind  us, 
And  life  forgets  us  in  its  noise  and  whirl, 

Visions  that  shunned  the  glaring  noonday  find  us, 
And  glimmering  starlight  shows  the  gates  of 
pearl. 

And  now  with  grateful  smile  and  accents  cheerful, 

And  warmer  heart  than  look  or  word  can  tell, 
In   simplest  phrase,  —  these  traitorous  eyes  are 

tearful,  — 

Thanks,   Brothers,  Sisters,  —  Children,  —  and 
farewell  !  " 

One  who  was  present  has  said  that  the  in 
tonation  of  that  word  "  farewell "  will  never 
cease  to  ring  in  the  ears  of  those  who  felt  the 
throb  of  feeling  with  which  it  was  spoken. 

The  other  poems  read  were  by  Whittier, 
Cranch,  Stedman,  J.  T.  Trowbridge,  William 
Winter,  Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe,  Mrs.  Helen 
Hunt,  and  others.  Here  are  three  stanzas  of 
Mr.  Winter's  beautiful  poem  :  — 

"At  first  we  thought  him  but  a  jest, 

A  ray  of  laughter,  quick  to  fade ; 
We  did  not  dream  how  richly  blest 

In  his  pure  life,  our  lives  were  made  ; 
Till  soon  the  aureole  shone,  contest, 
Upon  his  crest 


BEACOX  STREET.  21Q 

"  When  violets  fade  the  roses  blow ; 

When  laughter  dies  the  passions  wake ; 
His  royal  song,  that  slept  below, 

Like  Arthur's  sword  beneath  the  lake, 
Long  since  has  flashed  its  fiery  glow 
O'er  all  we  know. 

"The  silken  tress,  the  mantling  wine, 

Red  roses,  summer's  whispering  leaves, 
The  lips  that  kiss,  the  hands  that  twine, 

The  heart  that  loves,  the  heart  that  grieves, 
They  all  have  found  a  deathless  shrine 
In  his  rich  line  !  " 

Many  interesting  letters  from  those  who 
were  unable  to  be  present  were  read.  Among 
them  was  this  characteristic  letter  from  John 
Holmes,  the  brother  of  the  poet :  — 

"  CAMBRIDGE,  Nov.  14,  1879. 
"GENTLEMEN,  —  I  cannot  decline  your 
kind  invitation  without  a  word  of  preface. 
Between  my  brother  and  myself  there  has 
never  been  but  one  subject  of  rivalry,  —  that 
of  age  ;  and  there  I  long  since  gained  the  day, 
—  having  found  myself  generally  considered 
his  superior  on  this  point.  This  circumstance 


22O  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

has  placed  me  in  a  quasi  paternal  attitude 
toward  him,  and  gives  me  a  double  claim  to 
enjoy  the  pleasant  evidence  of  his  success 
which  you  now  offer. 

"As  intermediary  between  my  brother  and  a 
casual  portion  of  society  I  have  been  made 
the  depositary  of  many  favorable  opinions  in 
his  behalf,  and  can  honestly  say  that  I  have 
never  accepted  any  commission  for  my 
services,  in  the  way  of  personal  compliment. 
Employed,  as  I  so  often  have  been,  as  an 
opaque  sentient  medium  to  transmit  rays  of 
appreciation  without  loss  of  heat  by  absorp 
tion,  I  am  pleased  to  report  to  you  the  uni 
form  success  of  the  experiment. 

"  I  wish  my  brother  all  that  he  would  him 
self  select  from  the  bouquets  of  good-will 
that  are  made  up  for  such  occasions,  and 
freely  tender  him  that  title  to  seniority  of 
which  I  have  so  long  deprived  him. 

"  As  on  a  former  occasion,  I  feel  unwilling 

to  seat  myself  among  our  litterateurs,  on  the 

score  of   my   scant  authorship,  —  even  with 

the  added  plea  of  brotherhood  to  your  guest. 

"  Very  truly  yours, 

"JOHN  HOLMES." 


BEACON  STREET.  221 

Lowell  has  aptly  called  John  Holmes  "one 
of  those  choice  poets  who  will  not  tarnish 
their  bright  fancies  by  publication."  And, 
indeed,  those  of  us  here  in  Cambridge  who 
have  had  frequent  tastes,  in  social  circles,  of 
the  "  Lambish  quintessence  of  John,"  feel 
pretty  confident,  and  dare  maintain  it,  too, 
that  as  for  the  rich  sunshine  and  the  pure 
honey  of  artless  humor,  we  are  not  poorer 
than  Boston  ;  that  city  possesses  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes,  and  Cambridge  has  his 
fraternal  counterpart.  He  has  not  published 
much,  but  that  little  is  choice. 

But  to  return  to  the  Autocrat.  The 
spring  of  1882  saw  the  death  of  Longfellow, 
Emerson,  and  Darwin,  all  of  whom  passed 
away  within  a  few  weeks  of  each  other.  That 
was  a  sad  spring  in  Boston  :  there  was  a 
troubled  look  in  people's  faces,  and  the  mute 
inquiry,  "  Who  next  ? "  To  the  memory  of 
each  of  his  brother-poets,  Dr.  Holmes  dedi 
cated  a  masterly  oration.  The  qualities  of 
Emerson  he  sums  up  in  these  words  :  — 

"  He  was  a  man  of  excellent  common- 
sense,  with  a  genius  so  uncommon  that  he 
seemed  like  an  exotic  transplanted  from  some 


222  OLIVER   WENDELL   HOLMES. 

angelic  nursery.  His  character  was  so  blame 
less,  so  beautiful,  that  it  was  rather  a  standard 
to  judge  others  by  than  to  find  a  place  for  on 
the  scale  of  comparison.  Looking  at  life  with 
the  profoundest  sense  of  its  infinite  signifi 
cance,  he  was  yet  a  cheerful  optimist,  almost 
too  hopeful,  peeping  into  every  cradle  to  see 
if  it  did  not  hold  a  babe  with  the  halo  of  a 
new  Messiah  about  it.  He  enriched  the 
treasure-house  of  literature,  but  what  was  far 
more,  he  enlarged  the  boundaries  of  thought 
for  the  few  that  followed  him  and  the  many 
who  never  knew,  and  do  not  know  to-day, 
what  hand  it  was  which  took  down  their 
prison  walls.  He  was  a  preacher  who  taught 
that  the  religion  of  humanity  included  both 
those  of  Palestine,  nor  those  alone,  and 
taught  it  with  such  consecrated  lips  that  the 
narrowest  bigot  was  ashamed  to  pray  for  him, 
as  from  a  footstool  nearer  to  the  throne." 

The  summers  of  our  poet  have  been  passed 
not  only  at  Pittsficld,  and  at  the  old  homestead 
in  Cambridge,  but  also,  of  late  years,  at  the 
home  of  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Sargent,  in 
Beverly  Farms.  This  is  one  of  the  most 
fashionable  suburban  villages,  or  collection  of 


BEACON  STREET.  22} 

villas,  near  Boston.  It  is  by  the  sea,  and 
north  of  Boston  some  eighteen  miles.  Part 
of  the  way  to  Beverly,  via  the  Eastern  Rail 
way,  lies  through  wide  lagoons,  covered  with 
the  sea,  at  high  tide.  If  it  is  autumn  you 
will  see  around  you  innumerable  half-drowned 
haycocks  (the  marsh-grass  stacked  on  piles 
out  of  reach  of  the  water),  and  to  the  right 
the  Lynn  Railroad,  and  Revere  Beach  with 
its  hotels,  where 

"  His  humid  front  the  cive,  anheling,  wipes," 

and  wanders  smiling  on  "  vcntiferous  ripes." 
Neighbors  of  Holmes  at  Beverly  Farms  are 
John  T.  Morse,  Henry  Lee,  Robert  Rantoul, 
and  others.  His  own  residence  is  quite  near 
the  depot,  and  is  a  plain,  cream-colored  house, 
with  green  blinds  and  broad  front  verandah 
and  surrounding  yard  and  apple  orchard,  —  a 
house  conspicuous  for  its  plainness,  in  contrast 
with  the  magnificent  villas  that  crown  the 
rocky,  wooded  crags,  and  peep  castle-like 
from  the  verdure.  There  is  a  good  bathing- 
beach,  from  which,  on  a  breezy  day,  you  may 
see  the  far  snow-spray  tossing  above  the 
rocks  and  islands  that  line  the  coast, —  Eagle 


224  OLIVER   WENDELL   HOLMES. 

Island,  Misery  Island,  Marblehead  Rock,  etc. 
Besides  the  owners  of  the  villas,  there  is  a  small 
"  native  "  population.  They  have  a  collection 
of  books,  with  a  cosey  name  painted  on  a 
quaint  little  sign  above  the  door:  "The 
Neighbors'  Library."  Mrs.  Sargent's  rooms 
are  very  pleasantly  and  tastefully  decorated 
—  old-fashioned  fire-places,  chintz-covered  fur 
niture,  Japanese  wall  hangings,  etc.  At 
Beverly  Dr.  Holmes  drives  out  frequently 
with  his  wife,  on  pleasant  days,  and  on  such 
occasions  may  often  be  heard  composing  his 
poems  al  fresco,  — testing  them  by  the  open 
air,  as  Whitman  advises. 

In  the  autumn  of  1882  Dr.  Holmes  re 
signed  his  position  as  Parkman  Professor  of 
Anatomy  in  Harvard  University,  —  a  position 
which  he  had  held  for  thirty-five  years.  His 
chief  reason,  as  announced,  was  that  he  might 
devote  himself  more  particularly  to  literary 
pursuits,  —  especially  to  writing  for  the  At 
lantic  Monthly  magazine.  Upon  laying  aside 
the  professor's  gown  to  enjoy  a  little  well- 
earned  leisure,  he  was  immediately  appointed 
by  the  college  Professor  Emeritus,  and  his 
vacant  chair  will  be  filled  by  Dr.  Thomas 


BEACON  STREET.  22$ 

Dwight,    a    fellow-teacher    in    the    Medical 
School. 

On  Tuesday,  November  28,  Dr.  Holmes 
delivered  his  last  lecture  before  his  students. 
The  amphitheatre  of  the  anatomical  lecture- 
room  was  packed  with  students,  and  many 
gray-haired  practitioners  were  present,  assem 
bled  to  hear  their  old  teacher  for  the  last  time 
in  that  capacity.  As  the  Doctor  entered  the 
room  the  audience  rose  to  their  feet  with 
acclamations,  and  when  the  applause  ceased 
one  of  the  students  presented  him,  in  behalf 
of  his  last  class,  with  a  beautiful  "  Loving- 
Cup,"  inscribed  with  the  following  quotation 
from  one  of  his  own  poems :  "  Love  bless 
thee,  joy  crown  thee,  God  speed  thy  career." 
This  proof  of  the  esteem  in  which  he  was 
held  by  his  pupils  was  almost  too  much  for 
the  Professor's  quick  emotional  nature.  As 
soon  as  he  had  got  control  of  the  springs  of 
feeling  he  began  his  address,  which  was 
naturally  retrospective,  passing  in  review  his 
long  connection  with  the  school,  with  refer 
ences  to  his  early  college  days,  and  some 
account  of  the  teachers  and  associates  of  his 
youth,  of  his  studies  at  the  Ecole  de  Mede- 


226  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

cine,  La  Charite",  H6tel  Dieu,  and  the  Inva- 
lides,  in  Paris,  and  of  the  noted  physicians 
whom  he  heard  lecture  in  that  city,  — 
Baron  Boyer,  Baron  Larrey  (Napoleon's  fa 
vorite  surgeon),  Baron  Dupuytren,  Lisfranc, 
Velpeau,  Broussais,  Gabriel  Andral,  and, 
above  all,  Pierre  Charles  Alexandre  Louis,  by 
whom  Holmes  and  his  fellow-students  were 
ready  to  swear  at  all  times,  and  who  exer 
cised  more  influence  on  them  than  any  of  the 
other  living  masters  in  the  science.  There 
are  in  this  lecture  of  Dr.  Holmes  some  strong, 
nervous  portraitures  of  those  grim  French 
savans,  —  Larrey,  the  short,  square,  sub 
stantial  man,  with  iron-gray  hair,  red  face, 
and  white  apron  ;  Dupuytren,  oracular,  Web- 
sterian,  dominating  ;  Lisfranc,  who  used  occa 
sionally,  when  a  phlebotomizing  fit  was  on 
him,  to  order  a  wholesale  bleeding  of  his 
patients,  right  and  left,  whatever  was  the 
matter  with  them,  and  who  was  heard  one 
day  lamenting  the  splendid  guardsmen  of  the 
old  empire  because  they  had  such  magnifi 
cent  thighs  to  amputate !  Then  there  was 
Velpeau,  who  walked  to  Paris  in  wooden  shoes 
and  worked  his  way  up  to  eminence ;  Brous- 


BEACON  STREET.  22? 

sais  —  ("the  way  in  which  that  knotty-feat 
ured,  savage  old  man  would  bring  out  the 
word  irritation  —  with  rattling  and  rolling  re 
duplication  of  the  resonant  letter  r — might 
have  taught  a  lesson  in  articulation  to  Sal- 
vini")  ;  and  finally  Louis,  of  whom  his  stu-, 
dents  learned  the  great  truth,  —  afterwards 
enforced  in  this  country  by  Dr.  James  Bige- 
low  and  Dr.  Holmes  himself,  —  that  a  very 
large  proportion  of  diseases  get  well  of  them 
selves. 

Having  finished  his  "show  of  ghosts,"  as 
he  termed  it,  the  lecturer  made  some  practical 
remarks  on  the  way  science  was  tending,  and 
some  pleasantly  sarcastic  observations  on 
the  old  building  where  he  had  so  long  taught, 
remarking  that  he  had  always  thought  it  best 
to  abstain  from  anything  like  eloquence  lest 
a  burst  of  too  emphatic  applause  might  land 
himself  and  class  in  the  cellar,  alluding  also 
in  a  humorous  way  to  the  twilight  region 
under  the  amphitheatre,  where  he  had  for 
years  made  preparations  for  his  lectures. 

In  addition  to  the  offering  of  the  cup,  a 
beautiful  basket  of  flowers  was  presented  by 
former  pupils  of  the  Doctor.  In  afterwards 


228  OLIVER   WENDELL   HOLMES. 

acknowledging  the  cup  by  letter,  he  said  that 
the  unexpectedness  of  the  tribute  had  made 
him  speechless,  but  that  he  was  sure  that 
they  did  not  mistake  aphasia  for  acardia,  and 
that  his  heart  was  in  its  right  place  though 
his  tongue  forgot  its  office.  In  the  Boston 
Medical  and  Surgical  Journal  for  December 
7,  1882,  will  be  found  a  complete  report  of 
this  farewell  lecture.  It  is  also  published  in 
separate  form. 

This  seems  an  appropriate  place  to  men 
tion  that  Dr.  Holmes  is  a  member  of  the 
Massachusetts  Medical  Society,  President  of 
the  Boston  Medical  Library  Association,  and 
Vice-President  of  the  American  Academy  of 
Arts  and  Sciences. 

In  person  Holmes  is  a  little  under  the 
medium  height,  though  it  does  not  strike  you 
so  when  you  see  him,  especially  on  the  street, 
where  he  wears  a  tall  silk  hat  and  carries  a 
cane.  As  a  young  man  he  was,  like  Long 
fellow,  a  good  deal  of  an  exquisite  in  dress  ; 
and  he  has  always  been  very  neat  and  care 
ful  in  his  attire.  He  is  quick  and  nervous  in 
his  movements,  and  conveys,  in  speaking, 
the  impression  of  energy  and  intense  vitality  ; 


BEACON  STREET. 

and  yet  he  has  a  poet's  sensitiveness  to 
noises,  and  a  dread  of  persons  of  superabun 
dant  vitality  and  aggressiveness.  When  the 
fountain  of  laughter  or  smiles  is  stirred 
within  him  his  face  lights  up  with  a  win 
ning  expression  and  a  laughing,  kindly  glance 
of  the  eye.  When  he  warms  up  to  a  subject 
in  conversation  he  is  a  very  rapid,  vivacious 
speaker.  Hawthorne  recorded  his  observa 
tion  of  this  quality  as  early  as  1843.  In  his 
"  Hall  of  Fantasy  "  he  describes  certain  poets 
whom  he  saw  "  talking  in  groups,  with  a  liveli 
ness  of  expression,  or  ready  smile,  and  a  light 
intellectual  laughter,  which  showed  how 
rapidly  the  shafts  of  wit  were  glancing  to  and 
fro  among  them.  In  the  most  vivacious  of 
these,"  he  says,  "  I  recognized  Holmes."  Per 
haps  it  is  in  his  vers  d*  occasion  and  his  after- 
dinner  speeches  that  he  has  shone  most  bril 
liantly  in  society.  At  the  breakfast  given  to 
him  in  New  York  city,  in  1879,  by  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Henry  C.  Potter,  Mr.  George  William  Cur 
tis,  who,  as  all  the  world  knows,  is  a  very 
prince  among  impromptu  and  graceful  speak 
ers,  aptly  began  his  post-prandial  remarks  by 
the  following  little  prologue  (the  poetical  quo- 


230  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

tation  being  from  one  of  Dr.  Holmes'  early 
poems)  :  — 

"  '  I  know  it  is  a  sin 

For  one  to  sit  and  grin 
At  him  here  '  — 

But  how  can  I  help  it  ?  How  can  any  of  us 
help  it  ?  We  have  all  been  grinning  for  a 
generation,  and  my  only  comfort  is  that  the 
whole  English-reading  world  are  our  fellow- 
sinners.  Indeed,  for  many  a  year,  at  happy 
little  feasts  like  this,  the  chief  dish  —  what 
the  French  with  their  incomparable  and 
incomprehensible  felicity  call  the  piece  of 
resistance,  because,  I  suppose,  nobody  can 
resist  it  —  has  been  a  poem  of  his  own,  read 
by  your  distinguished  guest." 

Let  us  see  also  what  impression  he  has 
made  upon  foreign  visitors.  Chatty  Miss 
Mitford  said  of  him  in  1851  :  "  He  is  a  small, 
compact  little  man  (says  our  mutual  friend), 
the  delight  and  ornament  of  every  society  he 
enters,  buzzing  about  like  a  bee,  or  fluttering 
like  a  humming-bird,  exceedingly  difficult  to 
catch,  unless  he  be  really  wanted  for  some 
kind  act,  and  then  you  are  sure  of  him." 


BEACON  STREET.  231 

In  1875  Dr.  Appleton,  the  Oxford  scholar, 
met  Holmes  at  the  Saturday  Club  in  Bos 
ton  :  — 

"  Dr.  Holmes  was  highly  talkative  and 
agreeable ;  he  converses  very  much  like  the 
Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast-Table,  —  wittily, 
and  in  a  literary  way,  but,  perhaps,  with  too 
great  an  infusion  of  physiological  and  medical 
metaphor.  He  is  a  little  deaf,  and  has  a 
mouth  like  the  beak  of  a  bird  ;  indeed  he  is, 
with  his  small  body  and  quick  movements, 
very  like  a  bird  in  his  general  aspect.  When 
poor  Kingsley  was  in  Boston  he  met  Holmes, 
who  came  in,  frisked  about,  and  talked  inces 
santly,  Kingsley  intervening  with  a  few  words 
only  occasionally.  At  last  Holmes  whisked 
himself  away,  saying,  'And  now  I  must  go/ 
'He  is  an  insp-sp-sp-ired  j-j-j-h-ack-daw,'  said 
Kingsley."  * 

Mr.  David  Macrae,  a  Scotchman,  in  his 
book  called  "The  Americans  at  Home,"t 
gives  a  lively  picture  of  Holmes,  the  lecturer, 

•  Quoted  by  Mr.  Sanborn  in  ••  Homes  and  Haunts  of 
our  Elder  Poets." 

t  As  quoted  in  William  Shepard's  "Pen  Picture*  of 
Modern  Authors,"  pp.  147,  149. 


232  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

as  he  saw  him  and  heard  him  in  1863.  The 
occasion  was  an  inaugural  address  before  the 
Medical  School :  — 

"Holmes  is  a  plain  little  dapper  man,  his 
short  hair  brushed  down  like  a  boy's,  but 
turning  gray  now,  a  trifle  of  furzy  hair  under 
his  ears ;  a  powerful  jaw,  and  a  thick,  strong 
under-lip  that  gives  decision  to  his  look,  with 
a  dash  of  pertness.  In  conversation  he  is 
animated  and  cordial,  —  sharp,  too,  taking  the 
word  out  of  one's  mouth.  When  Mr.  Fields 
said,  'I  sent  the  boy  this-  '  'Yes;  I  got 
them,'  said  Holmes. 

"  Dr.  Holmes  now  gets  up,  steps  forward 
to  the  high  desk  amidst  loud  cheers,  puts  his 
eye-glasses  across  his  nose,  arranges  his 
manuscript,  and,  without  any  prelude,  begins. 
The  little  man,  in  his  dress-coat,  stands  very 
straight,  a  little  stiff  about  the  neck,  as  if  he 
feels  that  he  cannot  afford  to  lose  anything  of 
his  stature.  He  reads  with  a  sharp,  percus 
sive  articulation,  is  very  deliberate  and  formal 
at  first,  but  becomes  more  animated  as  he 
goes  on.  He  would  even  gesticulate  if  the 
desk  were  not  so  high,  for  you  see  the  arm 
that  lies  on  the  desk  beside  his  manuscript 


BEACON  STREET.  233 

giving  a  nervous  quiver  at  emphatic  points. 
The  subject  of  this  lecture  is  the  spirit  in 
which  medical  students  should  go  into  their 
work,  —  now  as  students,  afterwards  as  prac- 
tioners.  He  warns  them  against  looking  on 
it  as  a  mere  lucrative  employment.  *  Don't 
be  like  the  man  who  said,  "  I  suppose  I  must 
go  and  earn  that  d — d  guinea!"  He  en 
livens  his  lecture  with  numerous  jokes  and 
brilliant  sallies  of  wit,  and  at  every  point 
hitches  up  his  head,  looks  through  his  glasses 
at  his  audience  as  he  finishes  his  sentence, 
and  then  shuts  his  mouth  pertly  with  his 
under-lip,  as  if  he  said,  '  There,  laugh  at 
that ! '  " 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

CHARACTERISTICS. 

THE  task  of  him  who  would,  with  however 
light  a  touch,  give  some  analysis  and  inter 
pretation  of  the  writings  of  a  loved  and  ven 
erated  author,  now  full  of  years  and  honors, 
and  enshrined  as  a  personal  friend  in  the 
affections  of  thousands  who  have  never  even 
seen  him  in  person,  is  indeed  a  delicate  one. 
To  avoid  the  error  of  the  youthful  newspaper 
critic  administering  his  masterly  rebukes  to 
Homer,  and  Carlyle,  and  Emerson,  and  other 
presumptuous  writers  of  like  calibre, —  to 
avoid  this  is  not  very  difficult  for  one  who 
has  been  mellowed  a  little  by  time,  and 
taught  caution  by  experience.  But  there  is 
a  class  of  persons  who,  in  the  case  of  a 
favorite  author,  take  in  a  sort  of  dudgeon 
analysis  of  any  sort,  however  respectful  and 
delicate.  These  idolizers  would  fain  persuade 
themselves  that  their  hero  has  had  conferred 
upon  him  a  providential  exemption  from  faults 
234 


Off  A  RA  C  TERIS  TICS.  235 

and  deficiencies.  Such  persons  had  better 
skip  this  chapter.  Then  the  hero  himself, 
if  he  has  been  petted,  is  apt  to  take  criticism 
with  a  wry  face.  It  is  unnecessary  to  say 
that  this  is  not  the  case  with  -Holmes,  who 
in  almost  all  of  his  writings  is  himself  purely 
and  distinctively  a  satirist,  and  for  a  lifetime 
has  been  lashing  others  with  the  most  sting 
ing  and  excoriating  satire  (tempered  with 
humor  and  good-nature).  Of  course  such  a 
one  would  not  stultify  himself  by  asking  ex 
emption  from  good-humored  retaliation  ;  in 
deed,  he  distinctly  states  somewhere  in  one 
of  his  Breakfast-Table  talks  that  he  "welcomes 
criticism,  because  then  he  himself  feels  free  to 
exercise  his  own  gift  in  that  direction.  The 
really  great  man  always  welcomes  the  truth, 
if  it  is  spoken  in  a  generous  and  kindly 
spirit.* 

•  Compare  the  following  from  his  paper  entitled 
"  The  Autocrat  gives  a  Breakfast  to  the  Public"  (Allan- 
tic  ^foHthly,  December,  1858)  :  "  Every  man  of  sense 
has  two  ways  of  looking  at  himself.  The  first  is  an 
everyday  working  view,  in  which  he  makes  the  most 
of  his  gifts  and  accomplishments.  It  is  the  superficial 
stratum  in  which  praise  and  blame  find  their  sphere 
of  action,  —  the  region  of  comparisons,  —  the  habitat 
where  envy  and  jealousy  are  to  be  looked  for.  But 


236  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

Broadly  speaking,  Holmes  is  Janus-faced, 
that  is,  he  has  a  dual  nature  :  he  laughs  on 
one  side  of  his  face,  and  is  serious  on  the 
other  ;  in  one  mood,  fun,  humor,  laughing 
satire  predominate  :  he  is  a  harlequin  tum 
bling  in  mottled  coat,  a  court  fool  bubbling 
over  with  puns  and  saucy  jests,  a  Yorick,  a 
Mercutio,  and  nimble-witted  as  they  ;  but 
suddenly  some  hidden  spring  of  feeling  or 
pathos  is  touched,  the  eyes  brim  with  tears, 
and  the  soul  soars  upward  in  a  rapt  passion 
of  tenderest  sentiment.  Presently  the  mood 
changes  again,  and  deep-eyed  Sorrow  glides 
away  veiled  in  tears  and  sable  weeds,  and  Joy 
peers  in  through  trellis  of  perfumed  roses,  and 
laughs  to  see  her  merry  boy  transformed  to 
a  sober,  spectacled,  dry-as-dust  professor  and 
scientist,  delivering  a  learned  lecture  upon  the 
processes  and  sutures  of  Yorick's  skull,  or 

underneath  this  surface-soil  lies  another  stratum  of 
thought,  where  the  tap-roots  of  the  larger  mental 
growths  penetrate  and  find  their  nourishment.  Out 
of  this  comes  heroism  in  all  its  shapes;  here  the  enter 
prises  that  overshadow  half  the  planet,  when  full  grown, 
lie,  tender  in  their  cotyledons.  In  this  deeper  region 
a  man  calmly  judges  and  weighs  his  nature,  and  knows 
that  the  accident  of  applause  is  often  but  temporary." 


CHARACTERISTICS. 

the  simian  tendencies  in  the  facial  angle  of 
Dick  Turpin  or  Jack  Newgate.  Holmes  is,  on 
the  one  hand,  a  humorous  poet  and  satirico- 
humorous  essayist'  and  novelist  ;  and,  on  the 
other,  a  lay-preacher,  an  earnest  thinker,  a 
cultured  and  accurate  teacher,  and  an  orig 
inal  scientific  investigator.  And  yet  these 
numerous  endowments  and  traits  are  all 
blended  in  one  homogeneous  personality,  — 
humor  twining  like  a  silver  thread  through 
the  whole  nature  and  gleaming  out  for  a 
moment  in  the  midst  of  the  most  serious 
disquisition  or  address  ;  and  science  in  turn 
invading  the  poem,  the  novel,  and  the  essay, 
and  giving  to  these  the  solid  value  of  accu 
rate  observation. 

He  is  greatest  as  a  humorist.  As  a  writer 
of  comic  poetry  he  is  excelled  by  no  other 
English  author.  Hood's  verses  are  slovenly 
in  construction  and  not  so  gayly  riant  as 
Holmes',  do  not  shake  the  diaphragm  so 
deeply.  In  Holmes  the  essayist  (when  in  his 
best  moods)  we  have  Swift  without  his  rabid 
savagery,  Sterne  without  his  salaciousness, 
Steele  without  his  shuffling  irresolution,  and 
Pope  without  his  envenomed  bitterness. 


238  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

When  at  its  best  his  humor  has  the  genial 
and  kindly  character  which  marks  that  of  all 
the  great  humorists  ;  but  too  often  it  is  only 
an  ironical  smirk,  a  sardonical  grin,  a  laugh 
ing  at  others  instead  of  with  them.  The 
comic  in  him  is  always  saved  from  rodo 
montade  and  monstrosity  by  an  equipoise  of 
shrewd  practical  sense :  we  tremble  as  his 
glowing  wheel  grazes  the  brink  of  bombast 
and  folly,  but  with  a  cut  of  the  lash,  and  a 
short  turn,  away  he  flies  again,  laughing,  and 
we  laughing  with  him. 

As  has  been  intimated,  his  finest  humor 
bordej^Jcloseijpo^j^aUios,  and  this  is  true 
of  Hood  ancTTHckens  ;  it  is  true  of  Gough 
and  Beecher,  and  of  all  great  orators  and 
humorists.  There  is  no  well-defined  line  of 
separation  between  the  comic  and  the  pathetic, 
or  tragic  ;  the  only  difference  being,  as  Scho 
penhauer  points  out,  that  the  comic  is  purely 
objective,  and  deals  with  the  forms  and  sur 
faces  of  things,  while  the  tragic  is  subjective, 
dealing  with  the  innermost  nature  and  the 
depths  of  life  ;  but  things  that  seem  comic  to 
some  are  tragic  to  others,  and  vice  versa. 
"Humor!  humor  is  the  mistress  of  tears," 


CH A  RA  C  TERIS  TICS.  239 

i 

says  Thackeray  :  "  she  knows  the  way  to  the 
fans  lachrymarnm,  strikes  in  dry  and  rugged 
places  with  her  enchanting  wand,  and  bids  the 
fountain  gush  and  sparkle.  She  has  refreshed 
myriads  more  from  her  natural  springs  than 
ever  tragedy  has  watered  from  her  pompous 
old  urn." 

There  is  much  in  Holmes  that  reminds  one 
of  dear  foolish  old  Pepys.  Like  him  he  is 
sweetly  sentimental  about  himself ;  he  is 
never  done  talking  about  himself,  and  espe 
cially  about  his  childhood.  The  poetry  of  his 
early  life  clings  and  twines  about  his  heart  in 
perennial  freshness  and  interest.  All  poets 
feel  a  certain  sweet  sting  and  poignant  joy 
when  recalling  their  childhood.  The  early 
life  of  Holmes  was  exceptionally  happy,  and 
with  Chaucerian  naivet/ and  delight  the  white- 
haired  boy  babbles  about  it  in  a  style  so  gay 
and  charming  that  you  fairly  hold  your  breath 
with  suspense  of  interest,  and  wish  for  the 
thousand  and  one  nights  of  Scheherezade 
to  listen  to  him.  He  has  also  Pepys'  hearty, 
sensuous  enjoyment  of  life,  —  loves  rowing, 
racing,  trees,  women,  flowers,  perfumes,  and  a 
well-furnished  table.  (Isn't  it  funny  that  Pepys 


240  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

could  never  make  an  entry  in  his  diary  with 
out  recording  what  he  had  for  dinner,  —  that 
cut  of  beef  at  the  Boar's  Head,  or  that  roast 
duck  eaten  at  my  Lord  so  and  so's  ?)  Holmes 
has  Pepys'  rashness  and  impetuosity.  He 
says  somewhere  that  a  gentleman  will  say  yes 
to  a  great  many  things  without  stopping  to 
think,  while  a  mean,  shabby  fellow  will  look 
suspicious  and  cautious  and  hesitate  a  long 
while  for  fear  of  some  disadvantage  to  himself. 
This  observation  is  true  if  not  pressed  too 
hard  ;  but  it  also  seems  to  show  in  Holmes 
the  rashness  of  a  quick,  generous  nature  that 
acts  before  it  thinks,  and  is  sorry  for  it  after 
wards.  That  Dr.  Holmes  has  said  many 
things  in  the  heat  and  flush  of  manhood 
which  he  would  now  like  to  unsay  he  himself 
has  admitted,  both  in  private  conversation 
and  in  the  1882  preface  to  ihe  new  edition 
of  the  "Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast-Table." 
It  is  to  his  honor  that  he  has  frankly  con 
ceded  this.  In  concluding  this  parallelism 
between  Pepys  and  Holmes,  one  may  add  that 
between  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  also,  and  his 
American  fellow-physician  there  is  a  good 
deal  in  common,  —  for  example,  their  love  of 
antiquarian  studies. 


CH  A  RA  C  TERIS  TICS.  24 1 

Holmes  is  one  of  the  last  survivors  of  an 
illustrious  group  of  writers  who  lived  in  an 
epoch  of  great  intellectual  brilliancy,  —  the 
era  of  Transcendentalism.  He  belongs  to 
what  may,  perhaps,  be  known  to  posterity  as 
the  Concord  School,  the  writers  belonging  to 
which  have  one  and  all  based  their  intellect 
ual  creations  upon  the  moral,  and  whether 
they  have  sung  or  lectured,  or  written  fiction, 
have  never  failed  to  reveal  the  fact  of  their 
Puritan  antecedents  by  deftly  wreathing  the 
lustrous  flowers  of  their  thought  around  some 
hidden  sermon,  some  practical  moralization, 
or  some  useful  lesson  in  life.  Holmes  was 
brought  up  in  a  Calvinistic  family,  as  many 
of  us  have  been  ;  and  we  know  what  a  grip  the 
horrors  and  the  fatalism  of  that  theological 
scheme  get  upon  the  nature.  The  one  per 
sistent  purpose  running  all  through  the  prose 
writings  of  our  author  has  been  to  attack  the 
effete  ecclesiasticism  of  the  Calvinistic  creed. 
Like  Emerson  and  Parker  and  Whittier,  he  has 
been  a  knight-errant  of  the  religious  senti 
ment,  taking  a  good  deal  of  odium  upon  him 
self  in  times  when  it  almost  meant  social 
ostracism  to  inveigh  against  the  colossal  devil 


242  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

whom  good  people  had  mistakenly  exalted 
into  the  seat  of  their  God. 

We  have  said  that  Dr.  Holmes  is  to  be 
classed  with  the  Transcendentalists  of  the 
Concord  School  in  respect  of  the  ethical  char 
acter  of  his  writings ;  but  he  is  to  be  sharply 
distinguished  from  them  in  one  cardinal  point : 
they  made  little  of  conventional  manners  and 
behavior,  and  much  of  individuality,  and 
they  sternly  challenged  established  customs  : 
Holmes  conforms  in  all  except  religion. 

Great  men  are  necessarily  egotistic  ;  but 
there  are  different  varieties  of  egotism.  That 
of  Holmes  has  not,  it  must  be  admitted,  any 
element  of  grandeur  in  it.  He  says  in  "The 
Poet  at  the  Breakfast-Table  "  (at  the  close  of 
a  series  of  works  by  him)  :  — 

"  Libcrain  animam  meam  (I  have  unbur 
dened  my  mind).  That  is  the  meaning  of  my 
book  and  of  my  literary  life."  He  has  a  feel 
ing  of  relief  in  having  got  rid  of  the  thoughts 
that  were  pressing  for  utterance,  — that  is  all ! 
There  is  in  that  statement  the  confession  of 
his  great  limitation,  namely,  that  all  his 
thoughts  revolve  around  himself,  himself, 
himself,  —  reminding  one  of  that  satirical 


CHA  RA  C  TERIS  TICS.  243 

piece  of  Poe's  on  Nosology,  wherein  the  man 
with  the  big  nose  continually  talks  of  him 
self  and  his  nose,  his  nose,  his  nose.     With 
the  genius,  it  is,  "  Woe  is  me  if  I  speak  not !  " 
He  chisels,  or  paints,  or  writes  to  satisfy  the 
craving  within  him  for  ideal  expression,  and 
to  advance  the  interests  of  truth.     A  consid 
erable  part  of  Holmes'  poetry  was  written  be 
yond  doubt  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
genius,  and  there  are  many  of   his  poetical 
creations  which  are  the  expression  of  purest 
genius  of  the  ideal  sort ;  and  his  humorous 
verses  have  also  the  stamp  of  a  kind  of  genius. 
But  looking  at  his  nature  as  a  whole,  and 
apart  from  exceptional  flights  of  imagination 
(as  in  "  The  Chambered  Nautilus  "),  we  must 
pronounce   him    devoid    of    that    sublimated 
essence  called  genius,  at  least  that  kind  of 
genius  which  Poe,  and  Burns,  and  Keats  pos 
sessed.     In  sooth  he  is  at  just  the  opposite 
pole  of  their  genius  :  he  is  shrewd  practicality 
incarnate ;  he  is  purely  a  man  of  the  world, 
a  man   of   dress-coats,   and   white   neckties, 
and  drawing-rooms,  which  your  genius  never 
is ;   he   advises    conformity  to  the  world,  is 
horrified  at  unconventional  things,  which  a 


244  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

genius  never  is  ;  he  abuses  the  great  Richter,* 
which  no  genius  ever  has  done,  or  ever  will 
do ;  he  has  little  or  no  sympathy  for  down-, 
trodden  and  inferior  races,  f  but  the  one  dis 
tinguishing  feature  of  genius  is  its  volcanic, 
undying  hatred  of  oppression  ;  and,  finally, 
hear  his  own  words  :  "  You  know  twenty 
men  of  talent  who  are  making  their  way  in 
the  world  ;  you  may  perhaps  know  one  man 
of  genius,  and  very  likely  do  not  want  to 
know  any  more.  ...  It  must  have  been  a 
terrible  thing  to  have  a  friend  like  Chatterton 
or  Burns."  Such  is  Holmes'  opinion  of 
genius.  But  what  then  ?  Simply  this,  that 
if  he  is  not  a  genius  of  the  Poe  stamp  so 
much  the  better.  We  do  not  want  our 
authors  all  Poes.  If  the  genius  of  Holmes  is 
not  of  the  high  transcendental  sort,  yet,  after 
all,  it  is  a  species  of  genius,  and  of  the  finest 
carat  in  its  kind. 

*  See  his  "After-Dinner  Poem"  (Phi  Beta  Kappa, 

1843). 

t  See  "  Autocrat,"  Chapter  III.  :  "  In  the  conflict  of 
two  races  our  sympathies  naturally  go  with  the  higher." 
We  will  do  Professor  Holmes  the  credit  to  believe  that 
this  is  one  of  those  paragraphs  which  he  says  he  re 
grets  having  written. 


Off  A  RA  C  TERIS  TICS.  24$ 

Holmes  is  fond  of  puns  and  fantastic  con 
ceits,  to  the  making  of  which  considerable 
preparation  has  evidently  been  given ;  he 
repeats  himself  a  good  deal ;  he  is  well  read, 
but  has  not,  like  Emerson,  made  a  professional 
study  of  belles-lettres;  he  has  studied  the 
humanities  at  first  hand  in  man  himself.  The 
one  most  charming  feature  of  his  printed  and 
spoken  conversation  jisthat  he  establishes  a 
relation  of  sympathy  between  himself  and  his 
rcaders,^or  llstenersrby~expressing  for  them 
those  common,  everyday  thoughts  that  we 
all  thinfrrl5uT7areiy  say.  The  central  core  of 
him  is  bravery,  honesty,  kindliness.  The  sun 
shine  of  his  soul  gleams  out  upon  you  so  often 
that  you  forget  the  offensive  egotism  of  the 
cit  in  the  charm  of  the  artless  humor  and 
tender  sympathy  of  his  nature. 

He  is  indigenous  ;  throws  up  New  England 
subsoil  as  he  ploughs  ;  his  homespun  charac 
ters  speak  the  native  patois,  and  the  whole 
tone  of  his  writings  is  racily  and  unaffectedly 
Yankee.  Only  his  personal  spirit  and  point 
of  view  and  his  serious  diction  are  British. 

Dr.  Storrs  of  Brooklyn  once  told  how,  when 
living  in  a  small  German  town  across  the 


246  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

seas,  the  reading  of  the  various  instalments 
of  the  "Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast-Table" 
as  they  appeared  transported  him  as  magi 
cally  to  New  England  scenes  as  the  rubbing 
of  a  little  powder  in  his  hands  transferred  the 
magician  of  the  "  Arabian  Nights  "  to  distant 
lands. 

In  spite  of  his  city  life  he  knows  how  to 
observe  nature  closely  and  describe  her  poeti 
cally.  Witness  such  passages  as  this  :  — 

"The    spendthrift    crocus,  bursting    through   the 

mould 

Naked  and  shivering  with  his  cup  of  gold. 
Swelled    with   new  life,  the  darkening  elm  on 

high 

Prints  her  thick  buds  against  the  spotted  sky." 

Spring. 

This  prose  description  shows  a  sharp  ear 
and  eye:  "The  woods  at  first  convey  the 
impression  of  profound  repose,  and  yet,  if  you 
watch  their  ways  with  open  ear,  you  find  the 
life  which  is  in  them  is  restless  and  nervous 
as  that  of  a  woman  ;  the  little  twigs  are 
crossing  and  twining  and  separating  like 
slender  fingers  that  cannot  be  still ;  the  stray 
leaf  is  to  be  flattened  into  its  place  like  a 


CH A  RA  C  TEMS  TICS.  247 

truant  curl  ;  the  limbs  sway  and  twist,  impa 
tient  of  their  constrained  attitude  ;  and  the 
rounded  masses  of  foliage  swell  upward  and 
subside  from  time  to  time  with  long  soft 
sighs,  and,  it  may  be,  the  falling  of  a  few  rain 
drops  which  had  lain  hidden  among  the  deeper 
shadows." 

Those  who  would  enjoy  a  treat  in  the  way 
of  nature-writing  should  read  Dr.  Holmes' 
two  or  three  articles  in  the  "  Atlantic 
Almanac,"  if  they  can  obtain  a  copy  of  that 
valuable  annual.  Here  are  two  vignettes  out 
of  it  by  the  pencil  of  Holmes  :  — 

"The  Indian  corn  is  ripe,  beautiful  from 
the  day  it  sprung  out  of  the  ground  to  the 
time  of  husking.  First  a  little  fountain  of 
green  blades,  then  a  miniature  sugar-cane,  by 
and  by  lifting  its  stately  spikes  at  the  summit, 
alive  with  tremulous  pendent  anthers,  then 
throwing  out  its  green  silken  threads,  each 
leading  to  the  germ  of  a  kernel,  promise  of 
the  milky  car,  at  last  offering  the  perfect 
product,  so  exquisitely  enfolded  by  nature, 
outwardly  in  a  coarse  wrapper,  then  in  sub 
stantial  paper-like  scries  of  layers,  then  in  a 
tissue  as  soft  and  delicate  as  a  fairy's  most 


248  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

intimate  garment,  and  under  this  the  white 
even  rows,  which  are  to  harden  into  pearly, 
golden,  or  ruby  grains.  .  .  . 

"  But  here  comes  winter,  savage  as  when 
he  met  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth,  Indian  all 
over,  his  staff  a  naked  splintery -hemlock,  his 
robe  torn  from  the  backs  of  bears  and  bisons, 
and  fringed  with  wampum  of  rattling  icicles, 
turning  the  ground  he  treads  to  ringing  iron, 
and,  like  a  mighty  sower,  casting  his  snow  far 
and  wide,  over  all  hills  and  valleys  and 
plains." 

There  is  one  prominent  feature  of  Dr. 
Holmes'  writings  over  which  one  hardly 
knows  whether  to  be  amused  or  satirical.  The 
vanity  of  it  is  so  deliciously  apparent  that  one 
would  simply  allude  to  it  and  pass  it  over  in 
silence  did  it  not  occupy  so  very  conspicuous 
a  place  in  his  writings,  and  if  it  were  not  cer 
tain  that  a  good  deal  of  mischief  has  been 
caused  by  it  among  silly  people,  and  a  good 
deal  of  pain  among  many  worthy  people.* 

*  Harriet  Preston,  for  example.  The  writer's  atten 
tion  was  called  to  this  author's  novel  of  "  Aspendale  " 
after  his  own  strictures  on  this  matter  had  been  written, 
and  he  finds  that  she  is  even  more  severe  than  he  is  on 


CIIA  RA  C  TERIS  TICS.  249 

Reference  is  made  to  all  that  talk  about  "  the 
quality,"  "  men  of  family,"  the  "  Brahmin 
caste,"  "the  sifted  few,"  "we  Boston  folks"  ; 
and,  per  contra,  all  those  sneering  allusions 
to  "  the  rural  districts,"  "  the  unpaved  dis 
tricts,"  the  "  large-handed  bumpkins,"  "  the 
deep-rutted  villages  lying  along  the  unsalted 
streams,  "  the  ungloved,"  "the  folks  who  can't 
pronounce  view,"  "the  red-handed,  glove- 
less  undergraduate  of  bucolic  antecedents 
squirming  in  his  corner,"  etc.  What  is  to 
be  done  with  a  man  who  will  write  such  a 
sentence  as  this  :  "  Even  provincial  human 
nature  sometimes  has  a  touch  of  sublimity  in 
it"?  Nothing  —  except  to  laugh  at  him. 
When  a  man  like  Dr.  Holmes  can  seriously 
ask  that  we  make  out  of  various  little  sec 
tional  peculiarities  of  pronunciation,  dress, 
and  manners,  capital  distinctions  that  shall 
decide  the  social  worth  and  station  of  people, 
we  can  only  —  smile. 

The   "Autocrat   of   the  Breakfast-Table" 


the  "  snobbishness,*  M  she  calls  it,  or  Dr.  Holmes,  in 
his  treatment  of  "provincial"  people,  among  whom 
were  her  own  ancestors.  Sec  "  Aspendale,"  pp. 
'39-155- 


250  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES, 

begins  with  "  quality  "  talk,  and  "  Elsie  Ven- 
ner"  begins  with  it,  and  it  crops  out  in  all 
his  other  writings.  In  this  matter  of  family 
and  caste  he  is  the  most  badly  bitten  man  we 
know.  This  is  the  kind  of  class  feeling  that 
is  dear  to  the  British  heart.  Indeed,  is  it  not 
barely  possible  that  this  non-American  trait 
has  unconsciously  exercised  its  influence  to  a 
slight  extent  in  procuring  for  Holmes  the  ad 
miration  of  the  English,  so  that  in  a  recent 
issue  of  one  of  the  great  London  papers  it 
was  editorially  stated  that  no  contemporary 
American  writer  except  Lowell  had  so  amused 
and  instructed  the  insular  mind  as  Holmes 
had  done  ?  And  no  wonder  they  breathe  a 
sigh  of  gratification  over  his  pages.  For  what 
with  communists,  and  nihilists,  and  radical 
republicans  in  every  country  of  Europe,  in 
cluding  their  own,  they  must  find  it  difficult 
to  discover  an  author  of  eminence  who  can 
be  modern  and  mediaeval  in  a  breath.  A  man 
who  is  so  conservative  in  his  social  philosophy 
is  a  godsend  to  a  nation  surfeited  with  the  too 
refulgent  democratic  sunlight  of  Mirabeau, 
Hugo,  Gambetta,  Garibaldi,  and  others.  "  I 
go  politically  for  e  quality,  and  socially  for  the 


Cn A  KA  C  TERIS  TICS.  2  5  I 

quality,"  says  Holmes.  The  quality !  why, 
this  sounds  like  high-life-below-stairs  talk. 
The  reason  why  he  goes  for  the  quality  he 
explains  in  the  introductory  chapter  to  "  Elsie 
Venner."  But  it  is  almost  wrong  to  take  ad 
vantage  of  one  who  has  unbosomed  himself 
so  naively  to  his  own  injury.  But  we  must 
probe  the  matter  a  little  further.  When 
Holmes  expresses  profound  commiseration 
for  poor  geniuses  like  Poe,  for  poor  old  maids, 
and  for  po^j^jfpj^iii^^^and^when  Emerson 
admits  that  he  abhors  a  man  with  a  good, 
loiniirlTearty^tomachic  laugh,  why  is  it  that 
weHrfTmediateiylake  the  part  of  the  genius 
and  the  reformer,  think  with  admiration  of 
Theodore  Parker's  "  glorious  phalanx  of  old 
maids,"  and  feel  deep  in  our  natures  a  per 
verse  hunger  for  something  gross  and  strong, 
—  say  a  horse-laugh,  or  even  an  oath  from  a 
fisherman  or  a  teamster  ?  And  when  Holmes 
says  :  "  It  has  happened  hitherto,  so  far  as 
my  limited  knowledge  goes,  that  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States  has  always  been 
what  might  be  called  in  general  terms  a  gen 
tleman.  But  what  if  at  some  future  time  the 
choice  of  the  people  should  fall  upon  one  on 


252  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

whom  that  lofty  title  could  not  by  any  stretch 
of  authority  be  bestowed,"  —  when  we  con 
template  this  appalling  possibility,  why  do  we 
thank  God  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  not  a 
"gentleman"?     Or    when    the    laureate    of 
Boston,  in  his    "  Rhymed    Lesson,"  gives  to 
the   young   men  of    the    Mercantile    Library 
minute  furnishing-store  rules  for  dress  (boots, 
cravats,  breastpins,   shirts,  etc.),  why,  in  dis 
gust  at  all  this  pettiness  and  artificiality,  can 
we    think    with    complacency    of    an    act   of 
Joaquin  Miller,  who  (as  the  author  was  told  by 
a  friend  of  that  poet)  got  so  nauseated  with 
artificiality  one  day  in  Boston  that  he  went 
down    to  the  wharves,    selected   two  of   the 
hungriest-looking  men  he  could  find,  brought 
them  to  the  Parker  House,  and  paid  for  their 
dinners,  solely  for  the  pleasure  of   seeing  a 
genuine,  unsophisticated  act  that  should  keep 
him  sane  until  he  should  get  away  from  the 
city  ?     Or  when  the  Autocrat  tells  us  of  the 
unparalleled    heroism  of   the  lady  who,  at  a 
social  gathering,  actually  spoke  to  a  "  poor 
social  mendicant "  who  wore  no  shirt-collar, 
had   on    black   gloves,  and    flourished  a  red 
bandanna    handkerchief,  —  why     is    it    that 


CHARACTERISTICS.  253 

(while  admitting  the  possible  heroism  of  the 
act,  though  such  things  are  sometimes  done 
for  display)  we  still  have  a  wayward  feeling 
of  amusement  at  the  trepidations  and  panics 
of  our  good  friends,  the  carpet-knights, 
and  think  with  pleasure  of  Thoreau  and  his 
woodchuck  cap ;  of  Audubon  in  the  great 
hotel  at  Niagara,  with  his  rifle  and  tattered 
garb  of  skins*  —  Audubon,  at  that  very  mo 
ment  honored  by  the  crowned  heads  of  Eu 
rope,  and  by  the  civilized  world ;  or  of 
Thomas  DC  Quincey  going  to  one  of  the 
highest  social  gatherings  in  Edinburgh 
dressed  in  ink-bespattered  linen  trousers, 
and  an  old  coat  buttoned  up  to  his  chin,  and 
upon  his  feet  shoes  of  felt  over  which  the 
snow  had  sifted  ;  or,  finally,  of  that  magnifi 
cent  young  Greek-faced  sailor,  with  waving 
hair,  whom  Dr.  Holmes  himself  describes  so 
enthusiastically  in  the  "  Poet  at  the  Break 
fast-Table  "  ? 

But  how  about  this  chryso-aristocracy  over 
which  such  a  to-do  is  made  ?  Why,  they  are 
the  most  charming  and  inoffensive  people  in 
the  world,  —  most  of  them,  —  and  we  are 
always  disposed  to  hearty  liking  for  their 


254  OLIVER    WENDELL   HOLMES. 

sunny,  urbane  characters  except  when  we  are 
reading  such  champions  of  them  as  Holmes. 
To  be  sure  there  is  one  type  of  American 
chryso-aristocrat  that  forms  a  not  very  agree 
able  spectacle.  Holmes  aptly  likens  him  to  a 
gull:  — 

"A  gentleman  of  leisure, 
Less  fleshed  than  feathered  ;  bagged  you'll  find 

him  such  ; 

His  virtue  silence  ;  his  employment  pleasure  ; 
Not  bad  to  look  at,  and  not  good  for  much." 

In  other  words,  a  sort  of  negative,  mollus 
cous  creature  who  shuns  the  lion-hunts,  ex 
ploring  expeditions,  and  civil  and  military 
employments  of  his  more  manly  British 
brother,  —  his  only  value  to  the  world  being 
that  he  serves  as  a  walking  advertisement  to 
his  tailor,  and  as  a  model  of  conventional 
etiquette  to  the  poor.  It  is  not,  indeed,  to 
such  as  these  that  we  yield  the  homage  of 
our  admiration,  but  to  those  industrious, 
cheery-faced,  scholarly  men  of  wealth  and 
position  (often  men  of  "  old  family  "  stock) 
who  are  free  from  bourgeois  insolence  of  man 
ner,  are  courteous,  urbane,  public-spirited, 


CHARACTERISTICS  255 

in  short,  the  men  to  add  the  required  ele 
ment  of  dignity  to  democratic  life,  the  men 
for  your  governors,  mayors,  bank-presidents, 
or  foreign  ambassadors. 

We  may  sum  up  an  unpleasant  subject  by 
saying  that  our  genial  author  has  expressed 
a  great  deal  of  truth  in  a  very  offensive  way. 
He  has  said,  has  he  not,  things  that  had  bet 
ter  have  been  left  unsaid  ?  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  certain  portions  of  the  writings  of 
Holmes  havejielpcd  mbre  or  less  to  increase 
that  spirit  of  caste,  and  nervous,  morbid  con 
servatism  and  timidity  which  is  paralyzing 
the  spontaneous  creative  and  imaginative 
genius  of  Boston.  This  is  a  hard  thing  to 
say  ;  but,  if  true,  it  ought  to  be  said.  Every 
foot  of  land  in  Boston,  and  every  other  piece 
of  property  there,  begins  to  decline  in  value 
the  moment  great  men  cease  to  be  produced. 
Of  what  worth  are  your  buildings  and  ships 
and  streets  if  not  animated  by  a  soul,  if  not 
permeated  by  the  glowing  and  untramelled 
spirit  of  creative  energy  and  a  sympathetic 
unitary  life  ?  The  question  is  whether  the 
creative  instinct  in  Boston  literature  is  to  be 
crushed  out  by  criticism  and  formalism,  and 


256  OLIVER   WENDELL   HOLMES. 

robust  manliness  by  morbid  aestheticism. 
We  stand  in  the  midst  of  dead  systems  of 
thought.  The  freshness  and  glory  and  mys 
tery  of  the  new  will  certainly  never  fill  our 
souls  as  long  as  we  cherish  a  public  senti 
ment  which  makes  original  character  and 
individuality  subordinate  to  petty  conven 
tional  manners  and  the  accident  of  birth. 
We  laugh  at  that  Philadelphia  editor  who 
printed  in  his  magazine  a  translation  of 
Edward  Everett  Rale's  "Man  Without  a 
Country,"  under  the  impression  that  it  had 
never  before  appeared  in  an  English  dress.* 
Yet  upon  Boston  has  fallen  the  infinitely 
deeper  disgrace  of  suppressing  by  law  the 
writings  of  the  most  powerful  poetical  genius 
in  America.  But  it  is  never  too  late  to  re 
form.  The  remedy  for  a  stagnant  literary 
life  is  a  fresh  study  of  nature,  and  bravery  in 
standing  out  against  the  ridicule  of  critics 
and  conventional  conformers. 

If  it  were  not  that  the  theological  battles 
which  Holmes  was  fighting  a  quarter  of  a 
century  ago  are  now,  as  he  himself  has  re- 

*  See  Potter's  American  Monthly  for  December,  1881, 
and  January,  1882,  p.  103. 


Cn  A  RACTERIS  TICS.  y     257 

ccntly  said,  all  won  and  passed  wholly  by,  it 
would  be  interesting  to  draw  up  a  Rcligio 
Alcdici,  extracting  from  his  books  the  doc 
trines  which  he  believes  as  well  as  those  he 
has  combated  in  so  many  places  and  on  so 
many  occasions.  The  existence  of  a  score 
and  more  of  Unitarian  churches  in  Boston, 
and  the  fact  that  the  best  intellect  of  the  city 
has  for  half  a  century  been  either  Unitarian 
or  purely  theistic,  have  combined  to  throw 
what  is  usually  called  orthodoxy  into  the 
shade  there.  A  Cambridge  lady  told  the 
author  that  when  she  was  a  girl  at  school 
she  was  ridiculed  for  belonging  to  an  ortho 
dox  church,  — just  as  in  the  West  a  boy  or 
girl  might  be  ridiculed  by  a  schoolmate  for 
belonging  to  a  Roman  Catholic  church. 

In  the  University  circles  in  which  Dr. 
Holmes  has  moved  since  he  was  a  young  man 
at  college,  the  absurdities  of  the  prevalent 
popular  creeds  have  always  been  the  subject 
of  quiet  merriment.  But  Dr.  Holmes'  father 
was  an  orthodox,  that  is,  a  Calvinistic,  divine. 
In  this  we  have  the  key,  have  we  not,  to  the 
son's  life -long  warfare  against  Calvinism.  It 
was  necessary  for  him  to  define  himself  in 


258  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

order  to  escape  ridicule,  in  order  to  escape 
the  imputation  to  himself  of  his  father's  creed. 
Then,  too,  those  who  have  been  brought  up 
in  the  Calvinistic  creed  know  how  tenaciously 
it  interweaves  itself  with  the  mental  fabric  ; 
and  perhaps,  yes,  doubtless,  Dr.  Holmes  had 
for  many  years  to  wage  verbal  war  against  his 
childhood's  creed  in  order  to  get  wholly  free 
from  it  himself.  The  Devil  is  one  of  the  most 
difficult  things  to  get  rid  of  (and  no  joke). 
Young  Oliver  appears  to  have  been  haunted 
by  this  old  anthropomorphic  phantom  all 
through  boyhood.  He  was  troubled  not  only 
by  the  Devil,  but  by  devils.  He  says  that 
there  were  two  things  that  somewhat  diabol- 
ized  his  imagination  when  a  boy,  that  is,  two 
things  that  induced  belief  in  a  formidable  in 
carnate  fiend  prowling  about  the  neighbor 
hood  of  his  father's  house  seeking  whom  he 
might  devour.  These  were,  first,  certain 
marks  called  the  "  Devil's  Footsteps,"  con 
sisting  of  bare,  sandy  patches  in  the  pastures 
where  no  living  thing  would  grow  ;  and,  sec 
ond,  a  patched  place  on  one  of  the  college 
dormitories  said  to  have  been  made  by  the 
Evil  One  when  he  burst  violently  through  the 


Off  A  HA  C  TERIS  TIC  3.  :  :  ) 

side  of  the  room  where  some  gay,  dare-devil 
students  were  travestying  one  of  the  rites  of 
the  church.  Other  circumstances  fostered 
the  superstitious  tendency  developed  by  these 
two  facts  (so  striking  to  a  child's  mind). 
There  was  a  dark  store-room,  through  the 
key-hole  of  which  the  boy  dimly  saw  great 
heaps  of  furniture,  which,  to  his  vivid  imagi 
nation  and  fearful  gaze,  seemed  to  have  rushed 
in  pell-mell  and  climbed  upon  each  other's 
backs,  and  there  remained  in  enchanted  im 
mobility.  Then  there  were  wild  stories  told 
by  country  servant-boys  of  dreams,  appari 
tions,  and  death-signs,  and  of  contracts  writ 
ten  in  blood,  left  out  over  night,  and  taken 
away  by  the  arch-fiend  to  be  filed  away 
future  use.  When  one  remembers  that  these 
stories  were  all  ingrained  in  the  nature,  along 
with  what  were  to  him  actual  and  awful  religi 
ous  verities,  one  sees  reason  enough  for  re 
ligious  controversy  in  after-life,  and  for  resent- 
ment  against  the  creed  that  had  stuffed  his 
head  with  such  nonsense. 

But  there  were  counter-actions  and  counter- 
irritants.  He  hints  that  the  dogma  of  the 
Immaculate  Conception  early  received  a  severe 


260  OLIVER    WENDELL  HOLMES. 

blow  in  his  mind  by  a  whispered  story  of  a 
too  common  event.  And  then  there  was  the 
clerical  element  to  frighten  and  repulse  him. 
The  Doctor's  readers  are  familiar  with  his 
frequent  home  thrusts  at  the  clergy.  He 
says  in  one  place  that  when  he  was  a  child 
some  jolly,  benignant  clergymen  used  to  pass 
the  Sunday  at  his  father's  house,  and  made 
the  day  seem  almost  like  Thanksgiving.  But 
occasionally  one  of  the  undertaker  stamp 
would  come,  and  by  his  woebegone  looks  and 
wailing  pessimistic  tones  make  religion  utterly 
distasteful  to  him.  One,  especially,  so  twitted 
young  Oliver  with  his  blessings  as  a  Christian 
child,  whining  about  the  "  naked,  black  chil 
dren,  who,  like  the  '  Little  Vulgar  Boy,'  hadn't 
got  no  supper,  and  hadn't  got  no  ma,  and 
hadn't  got  no  catechism  (how  I  wished  for 
the  moment  I  was  a  little  black  boy  !),  that  he 
did  more  in  that  one  day  to  make  me  a  hea 
then  than  he  had  ever  done  in  a  month  to 
make  a  Christian  out  of  an  infant  Hottentot." 
Evidently  Oliver  was  not  destined  to  die  early 
and  pious  ;  and  his  career  as  a  Harvard  stu 
dent,  and  as  a  medical  student  in  Boston  and 
Paris,  did  not  directly  stimulate  superstition. 


CHARACTERISTICS.  26 1 

But  Dr.  Holmes'  admirers  do  not  need  to  be 
told  of  the  fact  that  he  has  a  deeply  religious 
nature,  —  he  could  not  be  a  poet  if  he  had  not. 
He  owns  a  pew  in  King's  Chapel  (Unitarian), 
and  is  a  pretty  regular  attendant.  His  relig 
ion  is,  and  has  been,  a  liberal  theism,  Tran 
scendentalism  in  fact,  as  many  prose  and 
poetical  passages  witness.  In  his  seventieth 
year  he  wrote  the  following  stanza  in  his  ex 
quisite  poem  "The  Iron  Gate":  — 

"  If  word  of  mine  another's  gloom  has  brightened, 
Through  my  dumb  lips  the  heaven-sent  mes 
sage  came ; 

If  hand  of  mine  another's  task  has  lightened, 
It  felt  the  guidance  that  it  dares  not  claim." 

Section  fifth  of  "The  Professor  at  the 
Breakfast-Table"  is  almost  wholly  given  up  to 
theological  discussion.  A  curious  instance  of 
the  old  anthropomorphic  ways  of  studying 
nature  is  furnished  by  the  Doctor's  explana 
tion  of  a  certain  little  useless  collar-bone 
which  is  found  floating  about  in  the  shoulder 
of  the  cat.  In  1857  Dr.  Holmes  held  this 
view  about  it :  that  it  is  there  not  as  a  survi 
val,  but  because  "  the  Deity  respects  a  normal 


262  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

type  more  than  a  practical  fact,"  or  utility. 
(From  a  paper  on  "The  Mechanism  of  the 
Vital  Actions,"  in  the  North  American  Re 
view  for  July,  1857.) 

As  chairman  of  the  Boston  Unitarian  Fes 
tival  in  1877,  Dr.  Holmes  summed  up  neatiy 
the  various  theological  views  which  he  always 
has  loved  to  combat :  — 

"  May  I,  without  committing  any  one  but 
myself,  enumerate  a  few  of  the  sturiibling- 
blocks  which  still  stand  in  the  way  of  some 
who  have  many  sympathies  with  what  is 
called  the  liberal  school  of  thinkers  ? 

"The  notion  of  sin  as  a  transferable  object. 
As  philanthrophy  has  ridded  us  of  chattel 
slavery,  so  philosophy  must  rid  us  of  chattel 
sin  and  all  its  logical  consequences. 

"  The  notion  that  what  we  call  sin  is  any 
thing  else  than  inevitable,  unless  the  Deity 
had  seen  fit  to  give  every  human  being  a  per 
fect  nature,  and  develop  it  by  a  perfect 
education. 

"  The  oversight  of  the  fact  that  all  moral 
relations  between  man  and  his  Maker  are  re 
ciprocal,  and  must  meet  the  approval  of  man's 
enlightened  conscience  before  he  can  render 


CH  A  RA  C  TERJS  TICS.  263 

true  and  heartfelt  homage  to  the  power  that 
called  him  into  being.  And  is  not  the  great 
est  obligation  to  all  eternity  on  the  side  of  the 
greatest  wisdom  and  the  greatest  power  ? 

"The  notion  that  the  Father  of  mankind 
is  subject  to  the  absolute  control  of  a  certain 
malignant  entity  known  under  the  false 
name  of  justice,  or  subject  to  any  law  such  as 
would  have  made  the  father  of  the  prodigal 
son  meet  him  with  an  account-book  and  pack 
him  off  to  jail,  instead  of  welcoming  him  back 
and  treating  him  to  the  fatted  calf. 

44  The  notion  that  useless  suffering  is  in 
any  sense  a  satisfaction  for  sin,  and  not  simply 
an  evil  added  to  a  previous  one." 

One  of  the  most  frequently  urged  themes  of 
Holmes  is  the  now  commonly-accepted  doc 
trine  of  the  limited  responsibility  of  the 
human  mind,  owing  to  inherited  tenden 
cies.  This  is  the  key-note  of  the  brilliant 
Phi  Beta  Kappa  lecture  of  1870,  entitled 
"Mechanism  in  Thought  and  Morals."  In 
his  review  of  Mr.  Prosper  Despine's  three 
volumes  on  the  psychology  of  crime  (Atlantic 
Monthly,  1875,  p.  466),  he  maintains  that 
moral  responsibility  is  limited,  that  the  worst 


264  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

criminals  are  virtually  almost  moral  idiots, 
and  therefore  the  least  responsible  of  all 
for  crimes  committed.  Despine  believes  that 
such  men  should  not  be  capitally  punished, 
but  be  confined.  Holmes  suggests  that  these 
dangerous  automata  ought  to  be  confined 
before  their  crimes  are  committed.  If  there 
is  a  tendency  in  Dr.  Holmes  to  lean  toward 
the  doctrine  of  complete  criminal  automatism, 
it  is  never  carried  to  the  length  of  totally  de 
nying  that  we  must  hold  criminals  responsible 
for  their  deeds,  but  is  cautiously  kept  within 
known  and  proved  scientific  limits.  He  es 
pecially  frowns  upon  the  theological  idea  that 
moral  responsibility  is  transmissible,  and  says 
that  "  the  inherited  tendencies  belong  to  the 
machinery  for  which  the  Sovereign  Power 
alone  is  responsible.  The  misfortune  of  per 
verse  instincts,  which  adhere  to  us  as  con 
genital  inheritances,  should  go  to  our  side  of 
the  account,  if  the  books  of  heaven  are  kept, 
as  the  great  church  of  Christendom  main 
tains  they  are,  by  double  entry." 

In  his  tilt  against  Jonathan  Edwards  (lec 
ture  read  at  the  Radical  Club,  and  afterwards 
published  in  the  International  Review  for 


CHARACTERISTICS.  265 

July,  1880),  he  says,  that  there  is  good  rea 
son  to  believe  that  there  are  persons  who 
are  born  more  or  less  completely  blind  to 
moral  distinctions,  just  as  some  are  born  color 
blind.  Yet  "we  have  a  sense  of  difficulty 
overcome  by  effort  in  many  acts  of  choice." 
So  that,  if  not  free,  we  think  that  we  are,  and 
this  in  itself  constitutes  a  powerful  motive. 
"  Our  thinking  ourselves  free  is  the  key  to 
our  whole  moral  nature.  '  Possumits  quia 
posse  vi demur?  ' 

In  the  article  just  quoted  Dr.  Holmes 
draws  a  detailed  parallelism  between  Edwards 
and  Pascal,  finding  them  to  have  much  in 
common.  He  says  of  Edwards  that  his 
ancestors  had  listened  to  sermons  so  long 
that  he  must  have  been  born  with  scriptural 
texts  lying  latent  in  his  embryonic  thinking- 
marrow,  as  undeveloped  pictures  lurk  in  a 
film  of  collodion.  He  also  suggests  that  the 
Northampton  divine  must  have  read  that  text 
that  mothers  love  so  well,  "  Suffer  little  vipers 
to  come  unto  me,  and  forbid  them  not,  for  of 
such  is  the  kingdom  of  God." 

One  should  not  forget  to  add  that  the  few 
hymns  of  Dr.  Holmes  are  much  admired,  and 


266  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

that  there  are  beautiful  fragments  of  religious 
poetry  scattered  through  his  works.  What 
a  sweet  and  trustful  spirit  breathes  through 
these  lines,  from  "Wind-Clouds  and  Star- 
Drifts  "!- 

"  Thou  wilt  not  hold  in  scorn  the  child  who  dares 
Look  up  to  Thee,  the  Father,  —  dares  to  ask 
More   than  Thy  wisdom  answers.     From  Thy 

hand 

The  worlds  were  cast ;  yet  every  leaflet  claims 
From  that  same  hand  its  little  shining  sphere 
Of  starlit  dew  ;  thine  image  the  great  sun, 
Girt  with  his  mantle  of  tempestuous  flame, 
Glares  in  mid  heaven  ;  but  to  his  noontide  blaze 
The  slender  violet  lifts  its  lidless  eye, 
And  from  its  splendor  steals  its  fairest  hue, 
Its  sweetest  perfume  from  his  scorching  fire." 


CHAPTER   IX. 

POETRY. 

"  His  the  quaint  trick  to  cram  the  pithy  line 
That  cracks  so  crisply  over  bubbling  trine" — 

HOLMES. 

IT  is  as  a  writer  of  humorous  poetry  that 
Holmes  excels.  His  non-humorous  poems 
are  full  of  beautiful  passages,  as  we  shall 
see  ;  but  they  are  not,  many  of  them,  perfect 
works  of  art  like  the  others  ;  they  have  not 
the  same  unique  flavor  of  individuality.  A 
goodly  proportion  of  his  best  comic  and  hu 
morous  pieces  are  vcrs  d'occasion,  written 
to  be  read  at  banquets  or  before  select  com 
panies.  From  time  immemorial  wit  has  sea 
soned  table-talk.  A  company  at  table  assigns 
by  instinct  the  chief  role  to  the  wit  or  hu 
morist.  The  three  meals  of  a  day  are  its 
green  oases,  its  sparkling  poems.  "The 
Poet  at  the  Breakfast-Table," — the  title  was 
well  chosen.  In  the  freshness  and  buoyancy 
of  the  morning  hour  the  fancy  plays  most 

267 


268  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

delicately  and  spontaneously,  and  the  poet  of 
Beacon  Street  has  transferred  to  the  pages  of 
his  prose  and  his  poetry  the  vitality  and  in 
tensity  of  spirits  that  the  cup  of  coffee  im 
parts.  He  also  understands  the  soft  illusory 
enchantment  of  the  chandelier,  what  time  its 
lustre  mingles  with  the  faint  waxy  aroma 
and  flowery  perfume  of  the  banquet-room. 

When  the  critic  approaches  the  post-coenati- 
cal  and  convivial  poems  of  Holmes,  he  will 
throw  aside  his  quill,  if  he  is  not  a  fool,  and 
yield  himself  with  others  to  the  fun  and  riant 
humor  of  the  moment.*  If  he  does  anything, 
he  will  long  for  an  artist's  brush  to  paint 
some  such  scene  as  this  :  (no  Deipnosophis- 
tean  Greek  debauch,  with  wreaths  and  wine, 
but)  an  ample  breakfast-table  in  a  high  and 
sunny  room,  the  cheery  crackle  of  blazing 
wood  in  a  spacious  fireplace,  the  delicate 
aroma  of  coffee  gratefully  inhaled  (but  you 
can't  paint  that;,  a  cultured  and  merry  com- 


*  "  I  would  go  fifty  miles  on  foot,"  says  Yorick,  "  for  I 
have  not  a  horse  worth  riding  on,  to  kiss  the  hand  of 
that  man  whose  generous  heart  will  give  up  the  reins 
of  his  imagination  into  his  author's  hands,  —  be 
pleased  he  knows  not  why,  and  cares  not  wherefore." 


POETRY.  269 

pany  seated  at  the  table,  and  at  its  head  the 
genial  face  of  one  crowned 

"With  white  roses  in  place  of  the  red," 

whose  tender-glancing  eye  is  now  moist  with 
tears,  and  now  gleaming  with  fun,  and  whose 
lips  at  one  moment  utter  subtle  and  senten 
tious  truth,  and  at  another  bubble  over  with 
puns  and  rippling  laughter,  and  jests  which 
put  the  company  into  such  a  state  of  interior 
titillation  and  stomachic  exhilaration  of  mood 
that  the  snowy  table-cloth  is  momently  in 
danger  of  amber  stains  from  shaking  cups. 
And  upon  the  frieze  of  the  room  let  there  be 
a  motley  procession  of  figures,  —  weird  Elsie, 
sweet  Iris  and  the  Little  Gentleman  hand 
in  hand,  the  poor  Tutor,  roguish  Benjamin 
Franklin,  gaunt  Silence  Withers,  wayward 
Myrtle,  and  honest  Gridley,  —  with  gar 
goyles  and  grotesques  at  intervals,  a  whiz 
zing  Comet,  the  immortal  One-Hoss  Shay  at 
the  moment  of  its  dissolution,  the  Spectre  Pig, 
and  the  pensive  Oysterman,  and  for  scroll 
work  a  chain  of  spiral,  pearly  shells  with  pur 
pled  wings  outspread. 

After  reading  a  dozen  or  more  pages  of  the 


2/O  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

neat  Augustan  couplets  of  Holmes'  best  vers 
d'occasion,  packed  and  crammed  with  little 
genre  images  and  neat  concretes,  you  have 
the  comfortable  feeling  of  a  man  who  has 
just  despatched  a  dish  of  hickory-nuts  cracked 
in  halves,  and  intermingled  with  raisins,  — 
the  whole  washed  down  with  a  gldschcn  of 
old  sherry.  Or  you  feel  as  if  you  had  been 
at  Mr.  Aldrich's  "Lunch":  — 

"  A  melon  cut  in  thin  delicious  slices, 
A  cake  that  seemed  mosaic-work  in  pieces, 
Two  china  cups  with  golden  tulips  sunny, 
And  rich  inside  with  chocolate  like  honey." 

But  not  all  of  Dr.  Holmes'  memorial  and 
anniversary  productions,  and  verses  kindly 
written  by  request,  are  of  equal  merit. 
Scores  of  them  are  nothing  but  rhymed 
rhetoric  and  sentiment,  and  should  never 
have  been  printed  at  all  except  in  newspa 
pers.  Their  author  has  said  of  late  that  he 
would  like  to  go  over  his  poetry  and  cull 
out  the  best  for  a  final  edition.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  he  may  find  time  for  this  task. 
He  has  told  us  of  the  origin  of  many  of  his 
verses ; — 


POETRY.  271 

4  I'm  a  florist  in  verse,  and  what  would  people  say, 
If  I  came  to  a  banquet  without  my  bouquet "  ? 

And  in  another  place  :  — 

"  Here's  the  cousin  of  a  king,  — 
Would  I  do  the  civil  thing? 
Here's  the  firstborn  of  a  queen ; 
Here's  a  slant-eyed  Mandarin. 

Would  I  polish  off  Japan  ? 
Would  I  greet  this  famous  man, 
Prince  or  Prelate,  Sheik  or  Shah  ? 
—  Figaro  c,i  and  Figaro  \\  \  " 

What  was  a  kind-hearted  man  to  do  ?  Of 
course  he  complied  :  the  verses  were  ground 
out  somehow,  —  and  what  poet  could  ever 
resist  the  temptation  to  publish  ?  It  is  almost 
impossible  to  impart  by  quotations  the  spirit 
and  hilarity  of  the  best  of  these  vers  (f  occa 
sion  :  there  is  a  whet  and  stimulant  in  every 
line  :  the  humor  of  them  is  interior,  below  the 
midriff,  and  penetrates  the  thick  integument 
of  care  and  gravity  with  a  slow,  delicious 
feeling  that  finally  breaks  out  into  uncon 
trollable  laughter.  Read  the  "Modest  Re 
quest  "  for  an  illustration  ;  or  the  "  Chanson 
without  Music,"  —  a  voluble  polyglot  medley 


2/2  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

that  almost  takes  one's  breath  away,  resem 
bling  nothing  so  much  as  the  tipsy  music  of 
a  bobolink,  or  the  vocal  pyrotechnics  of  thr 
Southern  mocking-bird  :  — 

"  You  bid  me  sing,  —  can  I  forget 

The  classic  ode  of  days  gone  by,  — 
How  belle  Fifine  and  jeune  Lisette 
Exclaimed,  *  Anacreon,  geron  ei '  ? 

*  Regardez  done,'  those  ladies  said,  — 

1  You're  getting  bald  and  wrinkled  too  : 
When  summer's  roses  all  are  shed, 
Love's  nullum  ite,  voyez-vous  1 ' 

In  vain  ce  brave  Anacreon's  cry, 
1  Of  Love  alone  my  banjo  sings  ' 

(Erota  mounon).     '  Etiam  si,  — 

Eh  b'en  ? '  replied  the  saucy  things,  — 

*  Go  find  a  maid  whose  hair  is  gray, 

And    strike   your   lyre,  —  we  sha'n't  com 
plain  ; 

But  parce  nobis,  s'il  vous  plait,  — 
Voilk  Adolphe  !     Voilk  Eugene  ! ' 

Ginosko.  Scio.  Yes,  I'm  told 
Some  ancients  like  my  rusty  lay, 

As  Grandpa  Noah  loved  the  old 

Red-sandstone  march  of  Jubal's  day. 


POETRY.  273 

I  used  to  carol  like  the  birds, 

But  time  my  wits  has  quite  unfixed, 

Et  quoad  verba,  —  for  my  words,  — 

Ciel !    Eheu !    VVhe-ew !  —  how  they're  mixed  !  " 

Some  of  Holmes'  best  anniversary  poems 
have  been  those  for  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa. 
"  Post-Prandial  "  is  one  of  these,  and  its  rare 
fun  will  not  be  understood  by  those  who  are 
ignorant  of  the  circumstance  that  Wendell 
Phillips,  who  is  a  distant  "connection"  of 
Holmes,  and  Charles  G.  Leland  (Hans  Breit- 
mann)  both  had  public  parts  to  perform  on 
the  occasion  that  gave  rise  to  the  poem. 
"Rip  Van  Winkle,  M.D. — An  after-dinner 
prescription  taken  by  the  Massachusetts  Med 
ical  Society  at  their  meeting,  held  May  25, 
1870,"  is  a  capital  piece  of  professional  fun. 
It  is  full  of  sly  thrusts  at  antiquated  doctors. 
They  are  typified  in  the  person  of  Rip  Van 
Winkle  (a  grandson  of  Irving's  hero),  who 
goes  to  sleep  with  the  request  that  he  be 
awakened  once  a  year  for  the  doctors' 
meeting.  Rip 

"  Had,  in  fact,  an  ancient,  mildewed  air, 
A  long  gray  beard,  a  plenteous  lack  of  hair,  — 


2/4  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

The  musty  look  that  always  recommends 
Your  good  old  Doctor  to  his  ailing  friends. 
—  Talk  of  your  science  !  after  all  is  said 
There's  nothing  like  a  bare  and  shiny  head  ; 
Age  lends  the  graces  that  are  sure  to  please ; 
Folks    want    their    Doctors    mouldy,    like    their 
cheese." 

Holmes  was  class  poet  at  college,  and  he 
has  remained  class  poet  all  his  life.  Thirty- 
seven  of  his  class  anniversary  poems  appear 
in  his  complete  poetical  works.  Some  of 
them  are  in  his  finest  vein  and  are  of  general 
interest.  For  example,  "  The  Boys,"  written 
in  1859:  — 

"  Has   there  any  old  fellow  got  mixed  with  the 

boys  ? 
If  there  has,  take  him  out  without  making  a 

noise. 
Hang  the  Almanac's  cheat,  and  the  Catalogue's 

spite  ! 
Old  Time  is  a  liar  !  We're  twenty  to-night ! 

We're  twenty !     We're  twenty !     Who  says  we 

are  more  ? 
He's   tipsy, — young  jackanapes!  —  show  him 

the  door ! 


POETRY.  275 

'Gray  temples  at  twenty  ? '  —  Yes  !  white  if  we 

please ; 
Where    the    snowflakes    fall    thickest    there's 

nothing  can  freeze  ! 


Then  here's   to  our  boyhood,  its  gold  and  its 

gray ! 

The  stars  of  its  winter,  the  dews  of  its  May  ! 
And  when  we  have  done  with  our  life-lasting 

toys, 
Dear  Father,  take  care  of   thy  children,  THE 

BOYS  ! " 

"The  Last  Survivor"  is  one  of  those  fine 
pieces  of  imagined  retrospect,  or  forecasting 
of  the  future,  which  is  so  excellently  done  in 
the  "  Epilogue  to  the  Breakfast-Table  Series." 
"  The  Archbishop  and  Gil  Bias  "  may  serve 
as  the  comic  counterpart  of  "  The  Iron  Gate," 
and  could,  one  thinks,  scarcely  have  been 
written  except  by  an  old  physician  who  had 
himself  been  a  keen  observer  of  old  men  :  — 

"  Can  you  read  as  once  you  used  to?    Well,  the 

printing  is  so  bad, 

No  young  folks'  eyes  can  read  it  like  the  books 
that  once  we  had. 


276  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

Are  you  quite  as  quick  of  hearing  ?     Please  to 

say  that  once  again. 
Don't  /  use  plain  words,  your  Reverence  f     Yes, 

I  often  use  a  cane, 
But  it's  not  because  I  need  it,  —  no,  I  always 

liked  a  stick ; 
And  as  one  might  lean  upon  it,  'tis  as  well  it 

should  be  thick. 
Oh,  I'm   smart,  I'm   spry,  I'm  lively,  —  I  can 

walk,  yes,  that  I  can, 
On  the  days  I  feel  like  walking,  just  as  well  as 

you,  young  man  !  " 

The  exquisite  elegiac  poem  on  his  class 
mate,  Prof.  Benjamin  Peirce — that  grand  old 
mathematician  of  lion  aspect,  whose  very  pres 
ence  seemed  a  proof  of  immortality,  —  is 
pitched  in  a  lofty  key,  as  the  subject,  indeed, 
could  not  but  inspire.  Two  of  the  stanzas 
may  need  a  word  of  explanation  :  — 

"  To  him  the  wandering  stars  revealed 
The  secrets  in  their  cradle  sealed  : 
The  far-off,  frozen  sphere  that  swings 
Through  ether,  zoned  with  lucid  rings  ; 

The  orb  that  rolls  in  dim  eclipse 
Wide  wheeling  round  its  long  ellipse,  — 
His  name  Urania  writes  with  these 
And  stamps  it  on  her  Pleiades." 


POETRY.  277 

The  reference  here  is  to  Prof.  Peirce's  cal 
culations  of  the  perturbations  of  Uranus 
about  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  Neptune 
by  Leverricr  and  Adams.  "Peirce"  (says 
Dr.  Thomas  Hill  of  Portland,  ex- President  of 
Harvard  University)  "showed  that  the  dis 
covery  of  Neptune  was  a  happy  accident ;  not 
that  Leverrier's  calculations  had  not  been 
exact  and  wonderfully  laborious,  and  deserv 
ing  of  the  highest  honor,  but  because  there 
were,  in  fact,  two  very  different  solutions  of 
the  perturbations  of  Uranus  possible.  Lever- 
rier  had  correctly  calculated  one,  but  the 
actual  planet  solved  the  other,  and  the  actual 
planet  and  Leverrier's  ideal  one  lay  in  the 
same  direction  from  the  earth  only  in  1846." 
A  writer  in  the  New  York  Nation,  October 
14,  1880,  says:  "When,  in  1846,  he  [Peirce] 
announced  in  the  American  Academy  that 
Galle's  discovery  of  Neptune  in  the  place  pre 
dicted  by  Leverrier  was  a  happy  accident,  the 
President,  Edward  Everett,  'hoped  the  an 
nouncement  would  not  be  made  public  ;  noth 
ing  could  be  more  improbable  than  such  a 
coincidence.'  '  Yes,'  replied  Peirce,  '  but  it 
would  be  still  more  strange  if  there  were  an 


278  OLIVER    WENDELL  HOLMES. 

error  in  my  calculations ' ;   a  confident  asser 
tion  which  the  lapse  of  time  has  vindicated." 

The  reader  of  Dr.  Holmes'  class  poems  may 
like  to  know  the  full  names  of  certain  class 
mates  to  whose  memory  poems  are  dedicated. 
The  initials  J.  D.  R.  stand  for  Jacob  D. 
Russell;  F.  W.  C.  for  Frederick  William 
Crocker ;  J.  A.  for  Joseph  Angier  ;  and  H.  C. 
M.,  H.  S.,  J.  K.  W.,  respectively  for  Horatius 
C.  Merriam,  Howard  Sargent,  and  Josiah 
Kendall  Waite. 

There  are  no  very  strongly  marked  epochs 
in  his  poetical  development ;  still  his  poetical 
activity  may  be  roughly  divided  into  four 
periods,  each  with  characteristics  of  its  own. 
During  the  first  period  —  from  1830  to  1849 
—  the  greater  portion  of  the  best  humorous 
poems  were  written.  From  1849  to  1857  — 
or  from  the  fortieth  to  the  forty-eighth  year  of 
the  poet  —  he  seems,  as  he  himself  has  inti 
mated,  to  have  fallen  into  a  sort  of  literary 
lethargy,  and  there  was  scarcely  a  poem  pro 
duced  which  takes  rank  with  the  work  of  other 
periods  in  his  life.  There  is  scarcely  a 
humorous  poem  in  this  group ;  and  only  three 
satirical  ones  which  stick  in  one's  memory, — 


POETRY.  279 

namely,  "The  Moral  Bully,"  "The  Old  Man 
of  the  Sea,"  and  "The  Sweet  Little  Man." 
It  is  a  curious  coincidence  that  this  barren 
period  extends  precisely  over  the  period  of  his 
summerings  at  Pittsfield,  and  over  his  career 
as  a  lecturer.  In  1857  came  the  Atlantic 
Monthly;  and  the  first  contributions  of 
Holmes  to  its  pages  —  prose  and  poetry - 
form  the  finest  literary  work  of  his  life.  The 
poems  published  in  the  "  Autocrat "  are  of  so 
uniformly  high  an  order  that  one  may  con 
sider  them  as  forming  a  group  by  themselves 
(1857-1858).  They  include  such  famous 
pieces  as  "The  Chambered  Nautilus,"  "Lat 
ter-Day  Warnings,"  "Estivation,"  "The 
One-Hoss  Shay,"  and  "Ode  for  a  Social 
Meeting."  The  period  from  1858  to  the 
present  time  is  distinguished  by  a  very 
much  larger  proportion  than  before  of  anni 
versary  and  memorial  verses,  and  other  vers 
d' occasion,  and  for  a  decided  preponderance  of 
serious  over  humorous  poems. 

His  early  humorous  poetry  (and  his  later 
also)  is  idiomatic,  pitched  in  a  conversational 
key,  full  of  bright  fancies,  rippling  laughter, 
crisp  and  sparkling  rhythm,  and  pleases  most 


280  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

in  virtue  of  the  use  of  familiar  and  homely 
objects  placed  in  the  most  incongruous  rela 
tions.  But  we  are  not  going  to  be  betrayed 
into  an  analysis  of  Dr.  Holmes'  vers  dc  socitit. 
Rash  would  be  the  man  who  should  attempt 
it ;  and  he  would  get  no  thanks  for  his  pains 
either.  Nor  shall  his  early  humorous  poems 
be  quoted.  There  is  but  one  way  :  you  must 
buy  his  poetical  works  and  read  them,  —  read 
them  and  laugh,  and  find  your  moral  atmos 
phere  cleared,  your  breath  freer,  your  diges 
tion  better,  and  your  whole  nature  sunnier 
than  before. 

A  feature  of  all  his  versification  is  its  neat 
ness,  —  no  slovenly  rhymes,  no  slipshod 
metres.  And  Pope  himself  never  crammed 
more  meaning  into  single  lines  and  stanzas, 
which  gleam  with  the  polish  and  delicate 
finish  of  fresh-minted  coins  of  gold.  Where 
will  you  find  greater  condensation  (outside  of 
the  writings  of  Tacitus)  than  in  such  lines  as 
these  :  — 

"  The  sexton,  stooping  to  the  quivering  floor 
Till  the  great  caldron  spills  its  brassy  roar, 

Whirls  the  hot  axle,"  etc. 

The  Bells. 


POETRY.  28l 

"  These  are  the  scenes  :  a  boy  appears ; 

Set  life's  round  dial  in  the  sun, 
Count  the  swift  arc  of  seventy  years, 
His  frame  is  dust ;  his  work  is  done." 

Birthday  of  Daniel  Webster. 

"  True  to  all  truth  the  world  denies, 

Not  tongue-tied  for  its  gilded  sin ; 
Not  always  right  in  all  men's  eyes, 
But  faithful  to  the  light  within." 
A  Birthday  Tribute  to  James  Freeman  Clarke. 

"  Its  irised  ceiling  rent,  its  sunless  crypt  unsealed." 
The  Chambered  Nautilus. 

"  For  these  the  blossom-sprinkled  turf 

That  floods  the  lonely  graves 
When  Spring  rolls  in  her  sea-green  surf 
Jn  flowery-foaming  waves. ' ' 

The  Two  Armies. 

There  is  still  another  whole  compartment 
in  the  mind  of  this  many-sided  man  which  we 
have  not  explored,  —  his  tender  passion  and 
delicate  feminine  sensibility.  Every  person 
of  mature  years  who  passed  through  the  fiery 
furnace  of  the  American  Civil  War  of  1861-65 
came  out  chastened  and  purified  and  elevated 


282  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

in  nature.  Already  in  1861  we  seem  to  see 
the  influence  of  the  opening  war  upon  Holmes, 
in  the  prelude  to  his  "  Songs  in  Many  Keys  " 
(1861).  After  this  his  mind  seems  sobered 
and  elevated  to  more  earnest  and  impassioned 
poetical  thought.  But  perhaps  it  is  only  the 
sobering  influence  of  years  that  we  notice. 
The  key-note  of  the  change  is  struck  in  the 
prelude  just  mentioned  :  — 

"  Song  is  thin  air;  our  hearts'  exulting  play 
Beats  time  but  to  the  tread  of  marching  deeds, 
Following  the  mighty  van  that  Freedom  leads, 
Her  glorious  standard  flaming  to  the  day ! 
The  crimsoned  pavement  where  a  hero  bleeds 
Breathes  nobler  lessons  than  the  poet's  lay. 
Strong  arms,  broad  breasts,  brave  hearts,  are 

better  worth 
Than   strains    that   sing    the    ravished    echoes 

dumb." 

The  poem  "  Musa  "  is  full  of  a  youthful,  rich, 
Oriental  fire  and  passion  that  one  had  hardly 
suspected  in  Holmes,  —  reminds  you  of  some 
of  Bayard  Taylor's  poems  of  the  East.  So  do 
the  following  two  stanzas  ("  Fantasia")  :  — 


POETRY.  283 

"  Kiss  mine  eyelids,  beauteous  Morn, 
Blushing  into  life  new-born  ! 
Lend  me  violets  for  my  hair, 
And  thy  russet  robe  to  wear, 
And  thy  ring  of  rosiest  hue 
Set  in  drops  of  diamond  dew ! 

Kiss  my  cheek,  thou  noontide  ray, 

From  my  Love  so  far  away  1 

Let  thy  splendor  streaming  down 

Turn  its  pallid  lilies  brown, 

Till  its  darkening  shade  reveal 

Where  his  passion  pressed  its  seal !  " 


"  Under  the  Violets  "  has  the  delicacy  of 
"  Claribcl,"  and  all  the  artlessness  of  Her- 
rick's  pieces  without  their  sensuality.  "  Iris, 
her  Book,"  is  full  of  that  subtle,  tremulous 
feeling,  and  sensitive  psychical  affinity  which 
unlocks  for  its  author  the  inmost  souls  of 
such  young  girls  as  Iris  and  Myrtle  Hazard. 
A  poet  never  hung  more  breathlessly  over  an 
opening  lily,  or  gazed  more  reverently  into 
the  innocent  little  face  of  the  spring's  first 
violet,  than  the  creator  of  Iris  and  Elsie  has 
watched  the  Psyche  unfolding  in  a  young 


284  OLIVER    WENDELL  HOLMES., 

girl's    nature,  or   new-born    Eros   trying   his 
wings  in  the  rosy  light  of  her  fancy. 

One  topic  still  remains  to  be  touched  upon, 
and  we  would  not  treat  it  in  an  ungracious  or 
complaining  spirit,  — namely,  the  Anglicism 
of  his  poetical  vehicle  or  metrical  style.  That 
this  is  not  original  does  not  detract  from  the 
merit  of  his  poetry  in  the  eyes  of  those  who 
were  partially  nourished  by  the  poetry  of  the 
Queen  Anne  school.  He  is  a  man  of  the 
world,  a  university  man,  and  we  should 
hardly  expect  such  a  one  to  strike  out  a 
new  style  in  poetry,  like  the  great  lovers 
of  nature, — Wordsworth,  Burns,  Emerson, 
Whitman  :  still  it  remains  to  inquire  how 
the  style  of  the  Boileau  and  Pope  school  ac 
quired  such  a  life-long  hold  upon  him.  The 
answer  is  doubtless  to  be  found  in  the  cir 
cumstance  that  in  his  father's  house,  and  in 
the  university  town  where  he  lived  as  a 
youth,  that  species  of  poesy  was  exclusively 
fashionable  at  the  time  when  his  poetical 
style  was  forming.  If  there  is  a  great  deal 
in  Holmes  that  reminds  one  of  William 
Spencer,  of  Crabbe,  Pope,  Hood,  and  the 
Prize  Poets  of  the  English  universities,  — 


POETRY.  285 

it  is  because  these  were  the  popular  poets 
when  he  was  a  boy  and  when  he  was  in  col 
lege.  He  tells  us  in  the  "  Atlantic  Almanac  " 
that  he  and  the  other  children  of  his  father's 
house  were  educated  on  such  English  books 
as  Miss  Edgeworth's  "  Frank  "  and  "  Parent's 
Assistant,"  "  Original  Poems,"  "  Evenings  at 
Home,"  and  "Cheap  Repository  Tracts," 
and  says  that  he  considers  it  to  have  been 
a  great  misfortune  that  they  should  have  been 
fed  on  these  English  books  instead  of  on 
American  ones,  for  the  former  were  full  of 
words  that  had  no  meaning  for  them.  They 
found  themselves  in  a  strange  world  where 
James  was  called  "Jem,"  not  Jim  as  they 
always  heard  it ;  where  a  young  woman  was 
called  "  a  stout  wench " ;  where  the  boys 
played,  not  at  marbles,  but  at  "taw";  where 
mischievous  boys  crawled  through  a  gap  in 
a  hawthorn  hedge  to  steal  Farmer  Giles' 
red-streaks,  instead  of  shining  over  the  fence 
to  hook  Daddy  Jones'  Baldwins  ;  where 
Hodge  used  to  go  to  the  ale-house  to  get  his 
mug  of  beer,  whereas  they  used  to  see  old 
Joe  steering  for  the  grocery  to  get  his  glass 
of  rum  ;  where  toffy  and  lollypop  were  eaten 


286  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

in  place  of  molasses-candy  and  gibraltars ; 
where  poachers  were  pulled  up  before  the 
squire  for  knocking  down  hares  with  sticks, 
while  to  their  knowledge  boys  hunted  rabbits 
with  guns,  or  set  "  figgery-fours "  for  them 
without  fear  of  the  constable ;  "  where  birds 
were  taken  with  a  wonderful  substance  they 
called  bird-lime  ;  where  boys  studied  informs, 
and  where  there  were  fags,  and  ushers,  and 
barrings-out  ;  where  there  were  shepherds, 
and  gypsies,  and  tinkers,  and  orange-women, 
who  sold  China  oranges  out  of  barrows ; 
where  there  were  larks  and  nightingales  in 
stead  of  yellow-birds  and  bobolinks."  Upon 
all  this  the  Doctor  remarks  :  "  What  a  mess, 
—  there  is  no  better  word  for  it,  —  what  a 
mess  was  made  of  it  in  our  young  minds  in 
the  attempt  to  reconcile  what  we  read  about 
with  what  we  saw.  It  was  like  putting  a 
picture  of  Regent's  Park  on  one  side  of  a 
stereoscope,  and  a  picture  of  Boston  Common 
on  the  other,  and  trying  to  make  one  of  them. 
The  end  was  that  we  all  grew  up  with  a 
mental  squint  that  we  could  never  get  rid 
of." 

How  closely  the   heroics  of   Dr.   Holmes 


POETRY.  287 

resemble  those  of  Goldsmith  and  Pope  no 
careful  reader  needs  to  be  told.  As  for 
Hood,  there  is  a  striking  resemblance  be 
tween  his  features  and  those  of  Holmes,  and 
there  is  a  striking  general  resemblance  be 
tween  the  style  and  literary  methods  of  the 
two  in  some  of  their  humorous  poems. 
Holmes  is  unique  and  original  in  matter, 
only  his  style  shows  the  influence  of  Hood. 
To  show  to  what  purpose  Hood  was  read  by 
Boston  and  Cambridge  people  about  the  time 
when  Holmes  was  making  his  first  poems, 
read  the  following  stanza  selected  by  the 
writer  from  many  similar  ones  in  the  Boston 
Daily  Advertiser  for  1830.  The  verses  are 
called  "  Fashionable  Eclogues  "  :  — 

"  Next  year,  papa  !  next  year,  mamma ! 

You  know  I'm  thirty-two, 
(I  call  myself  but  twenty-six, 

So  this  is  cntrc  nous  : ) 
Next  year  I  shall  be  thirty-three, 

I've  not  a  day  to  lose, 
Oh,  let  us  go  to  town  at  once, 

I'm  lost  if  you  refuse." 


288  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

Compare  the  metrical  flow  of  this  with 
Hood's  "  Sally  Simpkins'  Lament  "  :  — 

"  Oh  Jones,  my  dear  !  Oh  dear  !   my  Jones, 
What  is  become  of  you  ? 

"  Oh  !  Sally  dear,  it  is  too  true,  — 

The  half  that  you  remark 
Is  come  to  say  my  other  half 
Is  bit  off  by  a  shark  ! 

"Oh  !  Sally,  sharks  do  things  by  halves, 

Yet  most  completely  do  ! 
A  bite  in  one  place  seems  enough, 
But  I've  been  bit  in  two." 

Hood's  "Ode  on  a  Distant  Prospect  of 
Clapham  Academy  "  contains  just  the  touch 
of  Holmes  in  his  "  Old  Cambridge."  Hood 
says : — 

"  Ay,  that's  the  very  house  !     I  know 
Its  ugly  windows,  ten  a-row  ! 

Its  chimneys  in  the  rear  ! 
And  there's  the  iron  rod  so  high, 
That  drew  the  thunder  from  the  sky 

And  turned  our  table-beer ! 


POETRY.  289 

And  Mrs.  S ?  Doth  she  abet 

(Like  Pallas  in  the  parlor)  yet 

Some  favor'd  two  or  three,  — 

The  little  Crichtons  of  the  hour, 

Her  muffin-medals  that  devour, 

And  swill  her  prize  —  bohea  ?  " 

And  Holmes'  metres  run  as  follows  :  — 

"  The  yellow  meetin'  house,  —  can  you  tell 
Just  where  it  stood  before  it  fell, 

Prey  of  the  vandal  foe,  — 
Our  dear  old  temple,  loved  so  well, 

By  ruthless  hands  laid  low  ? 
Where,  tell  me,  was  the  Deacon's  pew  ? 
Whose  hair  was  braided  in  a  queue  ? 
(For  there  were  pig-tails  not  a  few), — 

That's  what  I'd  like  to  know." 

So  much  for  the  metrical  vehicle  of  Holmes, 
and  the  models  on  which  he  formed  his  style. 
A  poet  must  choose  some  style  or  other,  and 
the  Boston  singer  found  that  of  the  school  of 
Pope  and  Hood  best  fitted  for  his  use.  By 
any  other  name  the  rose  would  smell  as 
sweet.  In  the  case  of  humorous  or  comic 
verse,  we  need  not  quarrel  much  with  the 
style,  if  the  matter  be  but  good. 


2QO  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

Inasmuch  as  Dr.  Holmes  has  not  yet  edited 
a  selection  of  his  best  poems,  the  following  an 
thology  maybe  an  acceptable  guide  for  hurried 
readers ;  and  let  it  be  premised  that  all  the 
preludes  of  the  poet  are  exquisite  pieces  of 
poetry  and  sentiment.  The  best  poems,  in 
the  judgment  of  the  writer,  are  these  :  —  * 

Old  Ironsides ;  The  Last  Leaf ;  The  Cam 
bridge  Churchyard  ;  My  Aunt ;  Evening  by  a 
Tailor ;  The  Dorchester  Giant ;  The  Comet ; 
The  Music  Grinders  ;  The  September  Gale ; 
The  Height  of  the  Ridiculous  ;  On  Lending  a 
Punch-Bowl  ;  Nux  Postccenatica ;  A  Modest 
Request ;  The  Stethoscope  Song ;  The  Meeting 
of  the  Dryads  ;  The  Mysterious  Visitor ;  The 
Toadstool ;  The  Spectre  Pig ;  The  Ballad  of 
the  Oysterman  ;  The  Hot  Season  ;  The  Moral 
Bully  ;  The  Old  Man  of  the  Sea  ;  The  Sweet 
Little  Man  ;  The  Chambered  Nautilus  ;  The 
Two  Armies  ;  Musa;  A  Parting  Health;  Pro 
logue  ;  Latter-Day  Warnings  ;  A  Good  Time 
Going ;  The  Last  Blossom  ;  Contentment ;  JEs- 

*  The  poems  are  given  in  the  order  in  which  they 
occur  in  the  latest  edition  (1882),  and  may  therefore 
be  read  consecutively  and  chronologically  by  referring 
to  the  table  of  contents  of  the  poems. 


POETRY.  2QI 

tivation ;  The  Deacon's  Masterpiece,  or  The 
Wonderful  '  One-Hoss  Shay';  Ode  for  a  So 
cial  Meeting;  Under  the  Violets;  Iris,  her 
Book ;  Aunt  Tabitha  ;  Epilogue  to  the  Break 
fast-Table  Series  ;  The  Old  Man  dreams  ;  The 
Boys ;  The  Last  Survivor ;  The  Archbishop 
and  Gil  Bias;  Benjamin  Peirce;  Dorothy  Q.; 
The  Organ-Blower  ;  Rip  Van  Winkle,  M.  D.; 
Chanson  without  Music;  A  Sea  Dialogue; 
Grandmother's  Story  of  Bunker-Hill  Battle  ; 
Old  Cambridge ;  How  the  Old  Horse  won  the 
Bet  ;  The  Iron  Gate  ;  My  Aviary  ;  For  Whit- 
tier's  Seventieth  Birthday  ;  The  Coming  Era; 
Post-Prandial. 


CHAPTER   X. 

THE    SCIENTIST. 

AN  abler  pen  than  that  of  the  writer  of 
these  pages  will  doubtless  at  some  future  time 
treat  of  Dr.  Holmes  as  physician,  professor, 
and  scientific  specialist.  In  the  mean  time 
one  may  indicate  the  general  features  of  his 
scientific  work,  and  give  in  epitome  the  gist 
of  his  interesting  studies  and  original  re 
searches. 

His  first  original  work  was  his  Boylston 
prize  dissertation  on  "  Indigenous  Intermit 
tent  Fever,"  or  malaria  (1837),  a  paper  still 
valued  by  physicians.  Following  this  was  his 
treatise  on  "  The  Contagiousness  of  Puerperal 
Fever"  (1843),  concerning  which  he  has 
said  :  — 

"  When,  by  the  permission  of  Providence,  I 
held  up  to  the  professional  public  the  damna 
ble  facts  connected  with  the  conveyance  of 
poison  from  one  young  mother's  chamber  to 
another's,  —  for  doing  which  humble  office  I 
292 


THE  SCIENTIST.  293 

desire  to  be  thankful  that  I  have  lived,  though 
nothing  else  good  should  ever  come  of  my 
life,  —  I  had  to  bear  the  sneers  of  those  whose 
position  I  had  assailed,  and,  as  I  believe,  have 
at  last  demolished,  so  that  nothing  but  the 
ghosts  of  dead  women  stir  among  the  ruins." 

Dr.  Holmes  has  experimented  considerably 
in  optics.  The  reader  has  already  learned  of 
his  stereoscopical  researches  and  invention. 
In  Volume  IV.  of  the  Proceedings  of  the 
American  Academy  will  be  found  a  paper  by 
Dr.  Holmes  on  certain  original  optical  experi 
ments,  to  which  he  gives  the  name  "  Reflex 
Vision." 

He  has  also  done  some  original  work  in 
microscopy.  The  first  microscope  owned  by 
him  was  one  of  Raspail's,  purchased  for  him 
by  his  father  from  the  Rev.  Dr.  John  Prince, 
of  Salem.  After  making  many  experiments 
in  the  construction  of  microscopes,  Professor 
Holmes  finally  succeeded  in  inventing  one 
which  suited  his  wants.  It  is  not  only  useful 
for  class  purposes,  but  is  also  good  for  ordi 
nary  use  by  the  addition  of  a  simple  hinged 
platform  and  stage,  also  devised  by  him.  Vol 
ume  II.  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  American 


2Q4  OUTER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

•«• 
Academy    contains   a   communication    from 

him  "  On  the  Use  of  Direct  Light  in  Micro 
scopical  Researches,"  accompanied  by  a  draw 
ing  of  a  horizontal  microscopical  apparatus 
invented  by  himself.  As  illustrating  his 
scientific  accuracy  in  microscopical  investi 
gations,  one  may  quote  his  own  words,  as 
published  in  his  address  before  the  Boston 
Medical  Library  Association  :  — 

"  I  do  not  pretend  to  hoist  up  the  Bibliotheca 
Anatomica  of  Mangetus  and  spread  it  on  my 
table  every  day.  I  do  not  get  out  my  great 
Albinus  before  every  lecture  on  the  muscles, 
nor  disturb  the  majestic  repose  of  Vesalius 
every  time  I  speak  of  the  bones  he  has  so 
admirably  described  and  figured.  But  it  does 
please  me  to  read  the  first  descriptions  of 
parts  to  which  the  names  of  their  discoverers, 
or  those  who  have  first  described  them,  have 
become  so  joined  that  not  even  modern  sci 
ence  can  part  them  ;  to  listen  to  the  talk  of 
my  old  volume,  as  Willis  describes  his  circle, 
and  Fallopius  his  aqueduct,  and  Varolius  his 
bridge,  and  Eustachiushis  tube,  and  Monro  his 
foramen,  —  all  so  well  known  to  us  in  the 
human  body  ;  it  does  please  me  to  know  the 


THE  SCIENTIST.  295 

very  words  in  which  Winslow  described  the 
opening  which  bears  his  name,  and  Glisson 
his  capsule  and  De  Graaf  his  vesicle;  I  am 
not  content  until  I,  know  in  what  language 
Harvey  announced  his  discovery  of  the  circu 
lation,  and  how  Spigelius  made  the  liver  his 
perpetual  memorial,  and  Malpighi  found  a 
monument  more  enduring  than  brass  in  the 
corpuscles  of  the  spleen  and  the  kidney." 

Homoeopathy  Dr.  Holmes  believes  to  be 
an  arrant  humbug.  Now,  if  you  put  a  hum 
bug  and  Dr.  Holmes  in  juxtaposition  you 
are  sure  to  have  a  lively  fight.  And  whe-ew ! 
(as  he  would  say)  haven't  the  homoeopathists 
caught  it  though  !  They  have,  and  they  have 
writhed  under  the  lash,  as  the  numerous  repli- 
catory  pamphlets  prove.  Read,  and  you  shall 
see. 

In  1842  he  published  his  two  brilliant  lec 
tures  on  "  Homoeopathy  and  its  Kindred  De 
lusions."  They  were  originally  delivered  be 
fore  the  Boston  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of 
Useful  Knowledge. 

The  first  lecture  gives  an  account  of  four 
famous  delusions  :  (i.)  The  Royal  Cure  of 
the  King's  Evil,  or  Scrofula ;  (2.)  The  VVea- 


296  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

pon  Ointment,  and  the  Sympathetic  Powder ; 
(3.)  The  Tar-water  mania  of  Bishop  Berkeley  ; 
(4.)  The  Metallic  Tractors,  or  Perkinsism. 

The  first  of  these,  the  King's  Touch,  is  too 
well  known  to  need  explanation.  The  Wea 
pon  Ointment,  or  Unguentum  Armarium,  was 
believed  to  cure  wounds  by  being  applied  to 
the  weapon  that  produced  the  wound,  and  the 
Sympathetic  Powder  performed  the  same 
office  if  applied  to  the  blood-stained  garments 
of  the  injured  person,  although  that  person 
might  be  at  a  great  distance  from  the  gar 
ments  themselves. 

Amiable  Bishop  Berkeley  believed  that  his 
tar-water,  made  by  stirring  a  gallon  of  water 
with  a  quart  of  tar,  and  then  decanting  the 
clear  water,  was  a  specific  for  about  all  the 
diseases  under  the  sun.  "  He  was  an  illus 
trious  man,"  says  Dr.  Holmes,  "  but  he  held 
two  very  odd  opinions, — that  tar-water  was 
everything,  and  that  the  whole  material  uni 
verse  was  nothing."  The  Metallic  Tractors 
(invented  1796)  were  two  pieces  of  metal, 
one  apparently  iron  and  the  other  brass,  about 
three  inches  long,  blunt  at  one  end  and 
pointed  at  the  other.  The  tractors  were  ap- 


THE  SCIENTIST.  2Q7 

plied  for  the  cure  of  various  ills  by  being 
drawn  lightly  for  about  twenty  minutes  over 
the  affected  parts.  They  were  the  invention 
of  Dr.  Elisha  Perkins,  of  Norwich,  Connecti 
cut.  The  Tractor  delusion  swept  over 
America  and  Europe  like  wildfire,  and  as 
quickly  subsided.  Of  course  those  various 
delusions  are  described  and  classed  with 
homoeopathy  in  order  to  sfiow  that  in  Dr. 
Holmes'  opinion  one  is  as  much  a  piece  of 
imposture  as  the  others. 

The  second  lecture  treats  of  homoeopathy 
directly.  It  is  conceived  and  written  in  a 
vein  of  noble  scorn,  and  the  thought  is  poured 
out  along  the  pages  with  a  lucidity,  pungency 
of  satire,  and  cogent  understatement  that 
give  to  the  performance  the  velocity  and 
penetrating  force  of  a  cannon-shot.  Dr. 
Holmes  never  wrote  anything  in  clearer,  purer 
style  than  this. 

The  three  great  principles  of  Hahnemann, 
the  founder  of  homoeopathy,  are  these,  as 
Dr.  Holmes  puts  them  :  — 

(i.)  Like  cures  like.  That  is,  diseases  are 
cured  by  agents  capable  of  producing  symp 
toms  in  healthy  persons  resembling  those 
found  in  sick  persons. 


298  OLIVER    WENDELL  HOLMES. 

(2.)  The  efficacy  of  medicinal  substances 
reduced  to  a  wonderful  degree  of  minuteness, 
or  dilution. 

(3.)  Seven-eighths  at  least  of  all  chronic 
diseases  are  produced  by  the  existence  in  the 
system  of  psora,  or  the  itch. 

As  to  the  first  of  these  principles,  Dr. 
Holmes  says  that  there  are  a  few  cases  in 
which  an  ill  is  cured  by  remedies  producing 
similar  symptcms  ;  but  that  it  is  absurd  to 
say,  as  Hahnemann  did,  that  the  homoeo 
pathic  axiom  is  the  sole  law  of  nature  in  thera 
peutics. 

As  to  the  second  principle  :  the  ridiculous 
ness  of  the  claim  that  the  one-trillionth  of  a 
drop  of  any  drug  can  produce  any  effect  what 
ever  on  the  system  he  illustrates  by  suppos 
ing  that  the  whole  of  a  drop  of  chamomile 
were  diluted,  or  minimized,  to  the  degree 
which  Hahnemann's  disciples  prescribe  :  the 
calculation  proves  that  the  single  drop  of 
chamomile  would  have  to  be  diffused  through 
ten  thousand  seas  of  alcohol  as  large  as  the 
Adriatic  !  And  yet  a  few  pellets  moistened 
in  such  a  dilution  are  said  to  cure  the  most 
terrible  and  fatal  diseases  1 


THE  SCIENTIST.  299 

The  third  principle  of  Hahnemann  is  dis 
missed  as  unworthy  of  consideration.  Dr. 
Holmes  shows  that  many  of  Hahnemann's 
quotations  from  ancient  writers  are  garbled  ; 
that  the  cures  asserted  to  be  effected  by 
homoeopathic  medicines  are  really  cures  of 
nature,  the  unconscious,  invisible  physician 
of  life;  and,  finally,  that  many  eminent  phy 
sicians  of  Europe  have  fairly  and  repeatedly 
tested  homoeopathy,  and  found  it  a  complete 
humbug. 

He  closes  his  lecture  as  follows  :  — 
"Such  is  the  pretended  science  of  homoe 
opathy,  to  which  you  are  asked  to  trust  your 
lives,  and  the  lives  of  those  dearest  to  you. 
A  mingled  mass  of  perverse  ingenuity,  of 
tinsel  erudition,  of  imbecile  credulity,  and 
of  artful  misrepresentation,  too  often  mingled 
in  practice,  if  we  may  trust  the  authority  of 
its  founder,  with  heartless  and  shameless  im 
position.  Because  it  is  suffered  so  often  to 
appeal  unanswered  to  the  public,  because  it 
has  its  journals,  its  patrons,  its  apostles,  some 
are  weak  enough  to  suppose  it  can  escape  the 
inevitable  doom  of  utter  disgrace  and  oblivion. 
Not  many  years  can  pass  away  before  the 


300  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

same  curiosity  excited  by  one  of  Perkins' 
tractors  will  be  awakened  at  the  sight  of  one 
of  the  Infinitesmal  Globules.  If  it  should 
claim  a  longer  existence,  it  can  only  be  by 
falling  into  the  hands  of  the  sordid  wretches 
who  wring  their  bread  from  the  cold  grasp  of 
disease  and  death  in  the  hovels  of  ignorant 
poverty. 

"  As  one  humble  member  of  a  profession 
that  for  more  than  two  thousand  years  has 
devoted  itself  to  the  best  earthly  interests  of 
mankind,  always  assailed  and  insulted  from 
without  by  such  as  are  ignorant  of  its  infinite 
perplexities  and  labors,  always  striving  in  un 
equal  contest  with  the  hundred-armed  giant 
who  walks  in  the  noonday,  and  sleeps  not  in 
the  midnight,  yet  still  toiling,  not  merely  for 
itself  and  the  present  moment,  but  for  the 
race  and  the  future,  I  have  lifted  my  voice 
against  this  lifeless  delusion,  rolling  its  shape 
less  bulk  into  the  path  of  a  noble  science  it 
is  too  weak  to  strike  or  to  injure." 

These  lectures  naturally  produced  quite  a 
commotion  in  the  enemy's  camp,  and  there 
were  a  number  of  pamphlet  replies  by  Doc 
tors  Charles  Neidhard,  A.  H.  Okie,  Robert 


THE  SCIENTIST.  30 1 

Wesselhoeft,  and  others.  But  they  must  have 
been  rather  uncertain  and  evasive,  if  we  may 
judge  all  of  them  by  that  of  Dr.  Ncidhard. 
He,  however,  scores  one  good  point  against 
our  poet-doctor,  when  he  says  that  he  ought 
to  have  satisfied  himself  of  the  truth  or  falsity 
of  homoeopathy  by  actual  and  irrefutable  ex 
periments  of  his  own. 

To  what  has  been  quoted  from  Dr.  Holmes' 
utterances  upon  homoeopathy,  we  may  add 
this  :  In  his  "  Currents  and  Counter  Cur 
rents,"  he  says :  "  There  is  in  some  persons  a 
singular  inability  to  weigh  the  value  of  testi 
mony  ;  of  which,  I  think,  from  a  pretty  care 
ful  examination  of  his  books,  Hahnemann 
affords  the  best  specimen  outside  the  walls 
of  Bedlam."  And  again  :  Homoeopathy  means 
"that  the  sick  are  to  be  cured  by  poisons. 
Similia  similibus  cnrantur  means  exactly 
this.  It  is  simply  a  theory  of  universal 
poisoning,  nullified  in  practice  by  the  infini 
tesimal  contrivance."  And  in  the  Atlantic 
Monthly  for  December,  1857,  he  sums  up  the 
whole  matter  in  such  a  compact  and  charac 
teristic  style  that  it  would  be  too  bad  to 
abbreviate  or  rewrite  his  words  :  — 


302  OLIVER    WENDELL  HOLMES.  * 

"  Of  course  it  has  had  a  certain  success. 
Its  infinitesimal  treatment  being  a  nullity  ; 
patients  are  never  hurt  by  drugs,  when  it  is 
adhered  to.  It  pleases  the  imagination.  It 
is  image-worship,  relic-wearing,  holy-water 
sprinkling,  transferred  from  the  spiritual 
world  to  that  of  the  body.  Poets  accept  it  ; 
sensitive  and  spiritual  women  become  sisters 
of  charity  in  its  service.  It  does  not  offend 
the  palate,  and  so  spares  the  nursery  those 
scenes  of  single  combat  in  which  infants 
were  wont  to  yield  at  length  to  the  pressure 
of  the  spoon  and  the  imminence  of  asphyxia. 
It  gives  the  ignorant,  who  have  such  an  in 
veterate  itch  for  dabbling  in  physics,  a  book 
and  a  doll's  medicine-chest,  and  lets  them 
play  doctors  and  doctresses  without  fear  of 
having  to  call  in  the  cororrer.  And  just  so 
long  as  unskilful  and  untaught  people  cannot 
tell  coincidences  from  cause  and  effect  in 
medical  practice,  —  which  to  do,  the  wise 
and  experienced  know  how  difficult  !  —  so 
long  it  will  have  plenty  of  '  facts '  to  fall 
back  upon.  Who  can  blame  a  man  for  being 
satisfied  with  the  argument,  '  I  was  ill,  and 
am  well,  —  great  is  Hahnemann  ! '  Only  this 


THE  SCIENTIST.  303 

argument  serves  all  impostors  and  imposi 
tions.  It  is  not  of  much  value,  but  it  is 
irresistible,  and  therefore  quackery  is  im 
mortal." 

Only  three  years  after  the  foregoing  lines 
were  penned  by  Dr.  Holmes  he  startled  the 
physicians  of  Boston  with  almost  as  severe  an 
attack  upon  the  allopathists,  with  whom  he 
had  always  classed  himself,  as  had  been  his 
attack  upon  the  homoaopathists.  It  must  have 
caused  a  sensation  indeed  when  one  who  had 
always  been  sarcastic  over  almost  all  hygienic 
and  medical  innovations,  suddenly  turned 
squarely  about  and  belabored  his  own  coadju 
tors,  the  solemn  conservators  of  the  tradi 
tions  of  old-fashioned  medical  practice.  His 
address  by  no  means  gives  countenance  to 
homoeopathy  in  any  shape,  and  yet  a  fairly 
deducible  inference  from  it  is  that  a  modified 
homoeopathic  practice  may  not  be  much 
worse  after  all  than  an  unmitigated  allo 
pathic  practice.  The  address  (styled  "  Cur 
rents  and  Counter  Currents  in  Medical 
Science ")  was  delivered  at  the  meeting  in 
Boston  of  the  Massachusetts  Medical  Society, 
May  30,  1860,  and  afterwards  published  in 


304  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

book  form.  Its  vigorous  onslaught  upon  the 
excessive  use  of  drugs  in  medical  practice 
startled  the  learned  members  into  a  precipi 
tate  resolution,  "  That  the  society  disclaim 
all  responsibility  for  the  sentiments  contained 
in  this  annual  address."  Yet  it  is  safe  to 
say  that  so  much  sound  sense  has  rarely  been 
compacted  between  the  covers  of  a  medical 
brochure  as  we  find  in  this  lecture  of  Dr. 
Holmes.  It  ought  to,  and  doubtless  will, 
mark  a  turning-point,  an  epoch,  in  the  medi 
cal  practice  of  Boston.  We  like  the  clear, 
unequivocal  ring  of  these  pages.  We  like  to 
see  the  ripe  wisdom  of  thirty  years'  medical 
study  and  practice  drawn  upon  so  fearlessly 
in  the  interests  of  truth.  The  following  is 
an  abstract  of  the  work  :  — 

The  community,  says  Dr.  Holmes,  is  over 
dosed.  The  best  proof  of  it  is  that  no 
families  take  so  little  medicine  as  the  families 
of  doctors  (except  those  of  apothecaries),  and 
that  old  practitioners  are  more  sparing  in  the 
use  of  medicines  than  are  younger  ones.  The 
chief  defect  of  the  medical  practice  of  the 
day  is  that  it  neglects  causes  and  quarrels 
with  effects.  The  popular  belief  is  that  sick 


THE  SCIENTIST.  305 

persons  must  feed  on  noxious  and  disagree 
able  substances,  and  a  physician  who  does 
not  prescribe  these  is  thought  to  be  worth 
little.  A  Boston  physician  was  called  to  see 
a  man  with  a  terribly  sore  mouth.  On  in 
quiry  he  found  that  he  had  been  taking  a  box 
of  mercury  pills  that  he  had  picked  up  in  the 
street,  —  his  idea  being  that  all  pills  were 
good  for  people.  It  is  one  of  the  supersti 
tions  of  the  medical  practice  that  a  coated 
tongue  invariably  shows  that  the  stomach 
needs  an  evacuant.  But  the  condition  of  the 
tongue  is  no  guide  to  that  of  the  stomach, 
which  is  covered  with  a  different  kind  of 
epithelium,  and  furnished  with  entirely  dif 
ferent  secretions.  "  A  silversmith  will  for  a 
dollar  make  a  small  hoe,  of  solid  silver,  which 
will  last  for  centuries,  and  will  give  a  patient 
more  comfort  used  for  the  removal  of  the 
accumulated  epithelium  and  fungous  growths 
which  constitute  the  '  fur,'  than  many  a  pre 
scription  with  a  split-footed  »  before  it, 
addressed  to  the  parts  out  of  reach."  The 
Doctor  says  he  thinks  more  of  this  little  tool, 
because  the  use  of  it,  or  something  like  it, 
saved  the  Plymouth  Colony  in  1623,  when 


306  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

Edward  Winslow,  in  attending  the  sick  In 
dian,  Massasoit,  scraped  his  tongue  and  gave 
him  such  other  treatment  as  insured  his  re 
covery  and  procured  his  gratitude  to  the 
extent  of  his  revealing  the  Indian  plot  for 
the  annihilation  of  the  colony. 

Speaking  of  the  too  great  trust  of  the  em 
inent  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush  in  powerful  and 
hasty  remedies,  our  author  says :  "  How 
could  a  people  which  has  a  revolution  once 
in  four  years,  which  has  contrived  the  bowie- 
knife  and  the  revolver,  which  has  chewed  the 
juice  out  of  all  the  superlatives  in  the  lan 
guage  in  Fourth  of  July  orations,  and  so  used 
up  its  epithets  in  the  rhetoric  of  abuse,  that 
it  takes  two  great  quarto  dictionaries  to  sup 
ply  the  demand  ;  which  insists  in  sending 
out  yachts  and  horses  and  boys  to  out-sail, 
out-fight,  and  checkmate  all  the  rest  of  crea 
tion —  how  could  such  a  people  be  content 
with  any  but  '  heroic  '  practice  ?  What  won 
der  that  the  stars  and  stripes  wave  over  doses 
of  ninety  grains  of  sulphate  of  quinine,  and 
that  the  American  eagle  screams  with  delight 
to  see  three  drachms  of  calomel  given  at  a 
single  mouthful  ?  " 


TUB  SCIENTIST.  307 

All  noxious  medicines  and  appliances  which 
are  not  natural  food  or  stimulants  drain  from 
the  patient,  we  will  say,  five  per  cent  of  his 
vital  force,  and  "  in  the  game  of  life-or-death, 
rouge  ft  noir,  as  played  between  the  doctor 
and  the  sexton,  this  five  per  cent.,  this  cer 
tain  small  injury  entering  into  the  chances, 
is  clearly  the  sexton's  perquisite  for  keeping 
the  green  table  over  which  the  game  is 
played,  and  where  he  hoards  up  his  gains." 

Throw  out  opium,  says  Dr.  Holmes ;  throw^y 
out  a  few  specifics  which  a  physician  is  hardly 
needed  to  apply  ;  throw  out  wine,  which  is  a 
food,  and  the  vapors  of  ether  producing  an 
aesthesia,  and  then  sink  the  whole  materia 
medica,  as  now  used,  to  the  bottom  of  the 
sea ;  the  result  would  be  all  the  better  for 
mankind,  and  all  the  worse  for  the  fishes. 
In  a  note  the  Doctor  adds  that  by  this  start 
ling  assertion  "  no  denunciation  of  drugs  as 
sparingly  employed  by  a  wise  physician  was 
or  is  intended  ;  but  reference  was  had  to  the 
too  abundant  and  injudicious  use  of  such 
drugs  as  antimony,  strychnine,  acetate  of 
lead,  aloes,  aconite,  lobelia,  lapis  infernalis, 
stercus  diaboli,  tormentilla,  and  other  such 
remedies. 


308  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

Holmes  has  expressed  decided  opinions  on 
some  other  much-debated  subjects  besides 
theories  of  medical  practice.  In  the  North 
American  Review  for  July,  1857,  will  be 
found  a  review  by  him  of  certain  physiological 
works  by  Draper,  Carpenter,  Grove,  and  Met- 
calfe,  in  which  the  then  newly-emerging  doc 
trines  of  evolution  curiously  jostle  the  old 
anthropomorphisms.  The  reviewer  lays  his 
hand  on  his  heart,  and  makes  many  profound 
salaams  to  God,  but  keeps  slyly  thrusting  him 
farther  and  farther  back  into  the  deeps  of 
space  to  let  the  secondary  forces  do  the  main 
business  of  creation. 

After  disposing  of  the  theological  aspect 
of  his  subject  by  expressing  his  belief  in  an 
immanent  deity,  and  quoting  approvingly 
Oken's  dictum,  "The  Universe  is  God  rotat 
ing,"  he  enters  upon  a  discussion  of  the  ques- 
tion  of  the  existence  or  non-existence  of  a 
special  creative  vital  force.  He  takes  the  neg 
ative  view,  and  in  a  cogent  and  solid  review 
of  the  correlation  of  forces,  and  of  the  whole 
field  of  organic  life,  reaches  the  conclusion 
that  as  pre-existing  materials  were  employed 
to  form  organic  structures,  so  pre-existing 


THE  SCIENTIST.  309 

force  or  forces  must  have  been  employed  to 
maintain  organic  actions,  or  unconscious  life  ; 
that  life  is  as  necessary  an  attribute  of  a  per 
fect  organism  as  gravity  is  of  metal,  or  hard 
ness  of  a  diamond ;  that,  in  short,  there  is 
almost  a  complete  parallelism  between  the 
mechanism  of  vital  phenomena  and  the  mech 
anism  of  unvital  phenomena.  There  is  a 
strong  probability  that  all  forces  (including, 
perhaps,  matter  as  a  force)  are  only  different 
manifestations  of  one  infinite  incomprehens 
ible  force.  Such  a  view  simplifies  our 
thinking,  and  satisfies  the  generalizing  in 
stinct.  "  Science  is  the  art  of  packing  knowl 
edge." 

Through  Holmes'  brilliant  Phi  Beta  Kappa 
lecture  on  "  Mechanism  in  Thought  and 
Morals  "  run  two  richly  illustrated  thoughts, 
namely,  that  the  brain  contains  a  material, 
hieroglyphic  record  of  thought ;  and,  secondly, 
that  this  material  and  transmissible  record  is 
not  incompatible  with  freedom  of  willing  in 
the  sphere  of  morals,  although  for  certain 
great  classes  of  actions  men  are  not  respons 
ible. 

There  are  some   charming   reminiscences 


3IO  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

and  antiquarian  sketches  by  Holmes,  to  de 
prive  the  reader  of  some  account  of  which 
would  be  an  injustice.  Among  the  Win- 
throp  papers  was  discovered  a  manuscript 
written  about  1643,  and  labelled  "Receipts 
to  cure  Various  Disorders."  The  receipts 
are  signed  Edward  Stafford.  Here  is  one  of 
them  as  deciphered  by  Dr.  Holmes,  and  given 
by  him  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Massachu 
setts  Historical  Society  for  February,  1862  :  — 
"  My  Black  powder  against  y'  plague  t  small 
pox:  purples,  all  sorts  of  f cavers  :  Poyson  ; 
either  by  Way  of  prevention ,  or  after  Infection. 
In  the  Moneth  of  March  take  Toades,  as  many 
as  you  will,  alive  ;  putt  them  into  an  Kaithen 
pott,  so  y*  it  be  halfe  full  ;  Cover  it  with  a 
broad  tyle  or  Iron  plate  ;  then  ovcrwhelme  the 
pott,  so  y*  ye  bottome  may  be  uppermost :  putt 
charcoales  round  about  it  and  over  it,  and  in 
the  open  ayre,  not  in  an  house,  sett  it  on  fire 
and  lett  it  burne  out  and  extinguish  of  it  self : 
When  it  is  cold,  take  out  the  toades  ;  and  in 
an  Iron-morter  pound  them  very  well,  and 
scarce  them  :  then  in  a  Crucible  calcine  them 
so  againe :  pound  and  scarce  them  againe. 
The  first  time,  they  will  be  a  browne  powder, 


THE  SCIENTIST.  311 

the  next  time  black.  Of  this  you  may  give 
a  dragme  in  a  Vehiculum  (or  drinke)  In 
wardly  in  any  Infection  taken  ;  and  let  them 
sweat  upon  it  in  their  bcdds." 

In  illustration  of  this  remarkable  recipe, 
and  of  the  old  and  still-existing  superstition 
that  the  toad  is  poisonous,  Dr.  Holmes  refers 
to  the  story  in  Boccaccio  of  "  Pasquino  and 
Simona,"  lovers,  who  perish  by  rubbing  their 
teeth  with  the  leaves  of  a  sage  bush.  When 
the  bush  is  plucked  up  by  the  roots,  lo !  a  toad, 
to  the  poisonous  qualities  of  which  the  death 
of  the  lovers  is  ascribed.  That  the  toad  has 
some  unpleasant  bodily  peculiarities,  the  Doc 
tor  says  he  became  convinced  from  an  acci 
dent  that  happened  once  to  a  young  puppy  in 
his  presence.  The  puppy  was  amusing  himself 
by  pushing  a  toad  about  with  his  nose,  when 
suddenly  he  withdrew  with  marks  of  the  most 
extreme  disgust,  and  was  at  once  attacked  by 
such  salivation  as  the  Doctor  had  never  seen 
before  in  man  or  beast.  The  dog  never  med 
dled  with  a  toad  again  as  long  as  he  lived. 

In  giving  some  account  of  venerable  Dr. 
Edward  Augustus  Holyoke  (1728-1829)  in 
the  fourth  volume  of  the  Memorial  His- 


312  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

tory  of  Boston,  Dr.  Holmes  tells  a  little  in 
cident  concerning  him.  He  says  that  he  one 
day  took  a  student  just  beginning  his  medical 
education  with  him,  —  young  James  Jackson, 
—  into  the  room  where  he  kept  his  medicines. 
Pointing  to  the  drawers  and  bottles  ranged 
around  the  room,  he  said  to  the  young  man  : 
"  I  seem  to  have  here  a  great  number  and 
variety  of  medicines ;  but  I  may  name  four 
which  are  of  more  importance  than  all  the 
rest  put  together,  namely,  Mercury,  Anti 
mony,  Opium,  and  Peruvian  Bark."  This 
worthy  old  centenarian  had  a  great  antipathy 
to  cigars,  as  the  following  verses  of  his  wit 
ness  :  — 

"  And  smoaked  segars ! 
Vile  substitute  for  that  white,  slender  tube 
Our  fathers  erst  enjoy'd,  in  winter's  eve, 
When  the  facetious  jest,  or  funny  pun, 
Or  tales  of  olden  time,  or  Salem  witch, 
Or  quaint  conundrum  round  the  genial  fire 
The  social  hour  beguil'd." 

Under  the  heading  "  Personal  Recollec 
tions  of  Noted  Physicians,"  Dr.  Holmes  no 
tices,  among  Cambridge  doctors,  picturesque 


THE  SCIENTIST.  313 

old  Benjamin  Watcrhousc,  with  his  "  pyramid 
of  titles  of  great  dimensions,"  and  famous  for 
his  introduction  of  vaccination  in  the  West 
ern  World.  Dr.  Watcrhouse  vaccinated  a 
great  many  persons,  including  the  young 
Holmes,  who  afterwards  described  him  as  a 
brisk,  dapper  old  gentleman,  with  hair  tied 
in  a  ribbon  behind,  marching  smartly  about 
with  his  gold-headed  cane,  and  upon  his  face 
a  look  of  sagacity  and  oracular  gravity. 
Lowell  gives  a  delicious  bit  of  description  to 
fill  out  the  picture  :  - 

"  His  queue,  slender  and  tapering,  like  the 
tail  of  a  violet  crab,  held  out  horizontally  by 
the  high  collar  of  his  shepherd's-gray  over 
coat,  whose  style  was  of  the  latest  when  he 
studied  at  Leyden  in  his  hot  youth.  ...  He 
wore  amazing  spectacles  fit  to  transmit  no 
smaller  image  than  the  page  of  mightiest 
folios  of  Dioscorides  or  Hercules  de  Saxonia, 
and  rising  full-disked  upon  the  beholder  like 
those  prodigies  of  two  moons  at  once,  por 
tending  change  to  monarchs.  The  great  col 
lar  disallowing  any  independent  rotation  of 
the  head,  I  remember  he  used  to  turn  his 
whole  person  in  order  to  bring  their  foci  to 


314  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

bear  upon  an  object.  One  can  fancy  that 
terrified  Nature  would  have  yielded  up  her 
secrets  at  once  without  cross-examination,  at 
their  first  glare." 

Dr.  Waterhouse's  granddaughters  still  oc 
cupy  his  quaint  old  cottage  in  Cambridge,  and 
the  writer  was  told  by  them  that  half  a  cen 
tury  ago  he  had  a  great  botanical  garden  in 
the  rear  of  the  cottage,  where,  like  Dr.  Rap- 
paccini,  he  was  wont  to  walk  and  hold  con 
verse  with  his  plants.  It  was  he  who  was 
instrumental  in  founding  the  Harvard  College 
Botanical  Garden  (remembering  the  fragrant 
garden  of  this  kind  he  had  known  at  Leyden). 
Mr  John  Owen  once  told  the  writer  of  these 
pages  an  amusing  anecdote  of  Dr.  Water- 
house.  Mr.  Owen,  being  then  a  publisher  in 
Cambridge,  had  provided  a  newspaper-room 
in  the  rear  of  his  book-shop  for  the  con 
venience  of  himself  and  his  customers.  One 
day  Dr.  Waterhouse  came  in,  and  Mr.  Owen, 
accosting  him,  politely  informed  him  that  he 
would  be  happy  to  offer  him  the  use  of  his 
reading-room  gratis.  The  fiery  little  doctor 
looked  at  him  a  moment  with  his  keen  eyes, 
and  then  said  slowly  and  with  a  pause  be- 


TEE  SCIENTIST.  315 

tween  each  word  :  "  Mclasses  —  is  good  — 
to  ketch  —  flies!"  But  this  has  nothing  to 
do  with  an  account  of  the  life  and  writings  of 
Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  you  say.  True, 
it  is  a  digression.  But  "digressions,"  says 
Yorick,  "  incontestably  are  the  sunshine, 
they  are  the  life,  the  soul  of  reading.  Take 
them  out  of  a  book  and  one  cold,  eternal 
winter  would  reign  in  every  page  of  it." 


CHAPTER   XL 

AUTOCRATIANA.* 
THE    INDIAN. 

An  Indian  is  a  few  instincts  on  legs,  and 
holding  a  tomahawk. 

READ    "DON    QUIXOTE." 

When  Sydenham  was  asked  by  Sir  Richard 
Blackmore  as  to  what  medical  books  he  should 
read,  the  answer  was,  "  Read  '  Don  Quixote.' " 

ILLUSION. 

There  is  nothing  as  real  in  this  world  as 
illusion.  All  other  things  may  desert  a  man, 
but  this  fair  angel  never  leaves  him.  She 
holds  a  star  a  billion  miles  over  a  baby's  head, 
and  laughs  to  see  him  clawing  and  batting 
himself  as  he  tries  to  reach  it. 

*  In  this  chapter  are  collected  a  number  of  brilliant 
paragraphs  and  mots,  mostly  gathered  out  of  fugitive 
or  uncopy  righted  publications  of  Holmes. 
316 


AUTOCBATIANA.  317 

THE    AEOLIAN  ATTACHMENT. 

In  a  letter  of  Dr.  Holmes',  read  at  the  Cen 
tennial  Dinner  of  the  Massachusetts  Medical 
Society,  we  find  a  Holmes  mot :  — 

If  a  doctor  has  the  luck  to  find  out  a  new 
malady,  it  is  tied  to  his  name  like  a  tin  kettle 
to  a  dog's  tail,  and  he  goes  clattering  down 
the  highway  of  fame  to  posterity  with  his 
aeolian  attachment  following  at  his  heels. 

CRITICISM. 

If  anything  pleasant  should  be  said  about 
"the  new  edition,"  you  may  snip  it  out  of  the 
papers  and  save  it  for  me.  If  contrary  opin 
ions  are  expressed,  be  so  good  as  not  to  mark 
with  brackets,  carefully  envelop,  and  send  to 
me,  as  is  the  custom  of  many  friends.  —  Pre 
face  to  1848  edition  of  Poems. 

OLD    WINE    IN    NEW    BOTTLES. 

As  the  wine  of  old  vintages  is  gently  de 
canted  out  of  its  cobwebbed  bottles  with  their 
rotten  corks,  into  clean  new  receptacles,  so 
the  wealth  of  the  New  World  is  quietly  empty 
ing  many  of  the  libraries  and  galleries  of  the 


318  OLIVER   WENDELL   HOLMES. 

Old  World  into  its  newly-formed  collections 
and  newly-raised  edifices. 

INVALIDISM. 

Invalidism  is  the  normal  state  of  many 
organizations.  It  can  be  changed  to  disease, 
but  never  to  absolute  health  by  medicinal 
appliances.  There  are  many  ladies,  ancient 
and  recent,  who  are  perpetually  taking  rem 
edies  for  irremediable  pains  and  aches.  They 
ought  to  have  headaches  and  back-aches  and 
stomach-aches ;  they  are  not  well  if  they 
do  not  have  them.  To  expect  them  to  live 
without  frequent  twinges  is  like  expecting 
a  doctor's  old  chaise  to  go  without  creak 
ing  ;  if  it  did,  we  might  be  sure  the  springs 
were  broken. 

EX    NIHILO    NIHIL    FIT. 

Ex  nihilo  nihil  jit.  Given  a  half-starved 
dyspeptic  and  a  bloodless  negative  blonde  as 
parents,  Hercules  or  Apollo  is  an  impos 
sibility  in  their  progeny,  yet  people  look 
with  infinite  expectations  of  health,  strength, 
beauty,  intellect,  as  the  product  of  Ox— 1. 


AUTOCRATUNA.  319 

OUR    MORAL   EXUVLE. 

Is  there  no  outlawry  of  an  obsolete  self- 
determination  ?  If  the  president  of  the  So 
ciety  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Animals 
impaled  a  fly  on  a  pin  when  he  was  ten  years 
old,  is  it  to  stand  against  him,  crying  for  a 
stake  through  his  body,  in  saecula  saecnlonim? 
In  Swedenborg's  heaven,  "  what  we  are  will 
determine  the  company  we  are  to  keep,  and 
not  the  avoirdupois  weight  of  our  moral  ex- 
uvias,  strapped  on  our  shoulders  like  a  porter's 
burden." 

GUNPOWDER. 

Chemistry  seals  up  a  few  dark  grains  in 
iron  vases,  and  lo !  at  the  touch  of  a  single 
spark,  rises  in  smoke  and  flame  a  mighty 
Afrit  with  a  voice  like  thunder  and  an  arm 
that  shatters  like  an  earthquake. 

APPLIED    SCIENCE. 

Science  and  art  have  in  our  time  so  changed 
the  aspect  of  everyday  life  that  one  of  a  cer 
tain  age  might  well  believe  himself  on  another 
planet  or  in  another  stage  of  existence.  The 
wand  of  Prometheus  is  in  our  match-boxes : 


32O  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

the  rock  of  Horeb  gushes  forth  its  streams 
in  our  dressing-rooms  ;  the  carpet  of  Arabian 
story  is  spread  in  our  Pullman  car  ;  our  words 
flash  from  continent  to  continent ;  our  very 
accents  are  transmitted  from  city  to  city ; 
the  elements  of  forming  worlds  are  analyzed 
in  our  laboratories  ;  and,  most  wonderful  and 
significant  of  all,  the  despotic  authority  of 
tradition  is  unsceptred  since  the  angel  of 
anaesthesia  has  lifted  from  womanhood  the 
burden  of  the  primal  malediction. 

EUTHANASIA. 

That  euthanasia,  often  accorded  by  nature, 
sometimes  prevented  by  want  of  harmony  in 
the  hesitating  and  awkwardly  delaying  func 
tions,  not  rarely  disturbed  by  intrusive  influ 
ences,  is  a  right  of  civilized  humanity.  The 
anaesthetics  mercifully  granted  to  a  world 
grown  sensitive  in  proportion  to  its  culture 
will  never  have  fulfilled  their  beneficent  pur 
pose  until  they  have  done  for  the  scythe  of 
death  what  they  have  done  for  the  knife  of 
the  surgeon  and  the  sharper  trial  hour  of 
woman. 


AUTOCRAT! AN  A.  321 

THE   SCHOLAR    AND    HIS    BOOKS. 

The  scholar's  mind  is  furnished  with 
shelves  like  his  library.  Each  book  knows 
its  place  in  the  brain  as  well  as  against  the 
wall  or  in  the  alcove.  His  consciousness  is 
doubled  by  the  books  which  encircle  him,  as 
the  trees  that  surround  a  lake  repeat  them 
selves  in  its  unruffled  waters.  Men  talk  of 
the  nerve  that  runs  to  the  pocket,  but  one 
who  loves  his  books,  and  has  lived  long  with 
them,  has  a  nervous  filament  which  runs 
from  his  sensorium  to  every  one  of  them. 

TRANSLATION. 

The  translation  of  a  poem  from  one  lan 
guage  to  another  is  in  one  sense  an  impos 
sibility,  —  as  much  as  it  is  to  get  a  ripe  peach 
from  New  Jersey  to  Boston  ;  to  carry  a  full 
blown  rose  from  here  to  San  Francisco  ;  to 
waft  the  salt-sea  odor  of  Nahant  from  here  to 
St.  Louis. 

THE    UNKNOWN. 

Science  is  the  topography  of  ignorance. 
From  a  few  elevated  points  we  triangulate 
vast  spaces,  enclosing  infinite  unknown  de- 


322  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

tails.  We  cast  the  lead,  and  draw  up  a  little 
sand  from  abysses  we  shall  never  reach  with 
our  dredges. 

THE    POOH-POOHS. 

The  Pi-Utes  and  the  Kickapoos  of  the 
wilderness  are  hard  to  reason  with.  But 
there  is  another  tribe  of  irreclaimables,  living 
in  much  larger  wigwams  and  having  all  the 
look  of  civilized  people,  which  is  quite  as  in 
tractable  to  the  teachings  of  a  new  philoso 
phy  that  upsets  their  ancestral  totems.  This 
is  the  tribe  of  the  Pooh-Poohs,  so  called  from 
the  leading  expression  of  their  vocabulary, 
which  furnishes  them  a  short  and  easy  method 
of  disposing  of  all  novel  doctrines,  discoveries, 
and  inventions  of  a  character  to  interfere  with 
their  preconceived  notions. 

SLANG. 

The  use  of  slang,  or  cheap  generic  terms, 
as  a  substitute  for  differentiated  specific  ex 
pressions,  is  at  once  a  sign  and  a  cause  of 
mental  atrophy.  It  is  the  way  in  which  a 
lazy  adult  shifts  the  trouble  of  finding  any 
exact  meaning  in  his  (or  her)  conversation  on 


AUTOCRATIANA.  323 

the  other  party.  If  both  talkers  are  indolent, 
all  their  talk  lapses  into  the  vague  gener 
alities  of  early  childhood,  with  the  disadvan 
tage  of  a  vulgar  phraseology.  It  is  a  prevalent 
social  vice  of  the  time,  as  it  has  been  of 
times  that  are  past. 

UNPREMEDITATED    CRITICISM. 

In  Mrs.  John  T.  Sargent's  "Sketches  and 
Reminiscences  of  the  Radical  Club,"  Dr. 
Holmes  is  recorded  as  saying  that,  when  he 
was  invited  to  speak  without  preparation  on 
a  carefully  written  essay,  he  always  felt  as  he 
should  if,  at  a  chemical  lecture,  somebody 
should  pass  around  a  precipitate,  and  when 
the  mixture  had  become  turbid,  should  re 
quest  him  to  give  his  opinion  on  it ;  besides, 
he  added,  the  fallacies  constantly  arising  in 
such  a  discussion  from  the  lack  of  a  proper 
definition  of  terms,  always  made  him  feel  as 
if  quicksilver  had  been  substituted  for  the 
ordinary  silver  of  speech.  He  declared  that 
he  preferred  to  take  the  essay  home,  slowly 
assimilate  it,  and  not  talk  about  it  until  it 
had  become  a  part  of  himself. 


324  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

INDIAN    SUMMER. 

To  those  who  know  the  "  Indian  Summer  " 
of  our  Northern  States  it  is  needless  to  de 
scribe  the  influence  it  exerts  on  the  senses 
.and  the  soul.  The  stillness  of  the  landscape 
in  that  beautiful  time  is  as  if  the  planet  were 
sleeping,  like  a  top,  before  it  begins  to  rock 
with  the  storms  of  autumn.  All  natures  seem 
to  find  themselves  more  truly  in  its  light ; 
love  grows  more  tender,  religion  more  spirit 
ual,  memory  sees  farther  back  into  the  past, 
grief  revisits  its  mossy  marbles,  the  poet  har 
vests  the  ripe  thoughts  which  he  will  tie  in 
sheaves  of  verse  by  his  winter  fireside. 

THE   SPIRAL    COROLLA. 

Look  at  the  flower  of  a  morning-glory  the 
evening  before  the  dawn  which  is  to  see  it 
unfold.  The  delicate  petals  are  twisted  into 
a  spiral,  which  at  the  appointed  hour,  when 
the  sunlight  touches  the  hidden  springs  of 
its  life,  will  uncoil  itself  and  let  the  day  into 
the  chamber  of  its  virgin  heart.  But  the 
spiral  must  unwind  by  its  own  law,  and  the 
hand  that  shall  try  to  hasten  the  process  will 


A  UTOCRA  TIA  NA.  325 

only  spoil  the  blossom  which  would  have 
expanded  in  symmetrical  beauty  under  the 
rosy  fingers  of  morning. 

THE    TWENTY-SEVENTH     LETTER    OF    THE 
ALPHABET. 

In  1879  the  Indianapolis  News  published 
the  following  amusing  note  of  the  Autocrat, 
addressed  to  a  young  Quaker  lady  who  had 
inquired  about  the  twenty-seventh  letter  of 
the  alphabet  mentioned  in  "  Elsie  Venner  "  : 

BOSTON,  March  4,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  Miss  LAVINIA,  —  The  twenty -seventh 
letter  of  the  alphabet  is  pronounced  by  applying 
the  lips  of  the  person  speaking  it  to  the  cheek  of 
a  friend,  and  puckering  and  parting  the  same  with 
a  peculiar  explosive  sound.  "  Cousin  Edward  " 
will  show  you  how  to  speak  this  labial  consonant, 
no  doubt,  and  allow  you  to  show  your  proficiency 
by  practising  it  with  your  lips  against  his  cheek. 
For  further  information  you  had  better  consult 
your  gra'm'ma.  Very  truly  yours, 

O.  VV.  HOLMES. 

P.  S.  —  Are  you  any  relation  to  "the  lovely 
young  Lavinia  "  who  "  once  had  friends,"  men 
tioned  by  Thomson  in  his  "  Seasons  "  ? 


326  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

A    STRONG   SMELL    OF    TURPENTINE. 

I  once  inhaled  a  pretty  full  dose  of  ether 
with  the  determination  to  put  on  record,  at 
the  earliest  moment  of  regaining  conscious 
ness,  the  thought  I  should  find  uppermost  in 
my  mind.  The  mighty  music  of  the  tri 
umphal  march  into  nothingness  reverberated 
through  my  brain,  and  filled  me  with  a  sense 
of  infinite  possibilities,  which  made  me  an 
archangel  for  the  moment.  The  veil  of  eter 
nity  was  lifted.  The  one  great  truth  which 
underlies  all  human  experience,  and  is  the 
key  to  all  the  mysteries  that  philosophy  has 
sought  in  vain  to  solve,  flashed  upon  me  in  a 
sudden  revelation.  Henceforth  all  was  clear  ; 
a  few  words  had  lifted  my  intelligence  to  the 
level  of  the  knowledge  of  the  cherubim.  As 
my  natural  condition  returned,  I  remembered 
my  resolution  ;  and  staggering  to  my  desk, 
I  wrote,  in  ill-shaped,  straggling  characters, 
the  all-embracing  truth  still  gleaming  in  my 
consciousness.  The  words  were  these  (chil 
dren  may  smile  ;  the  wise  will  ponder) :  "  A 
strong  smell  of  turpentine  prevails  through- 


AUTOCRATIANA.  327 

out"     [A  narrow  escape,  Doctor !  what  if  it 
had  been  sulphur  ?  ] 

MUTUAL     UNDERVALUATION. 

I  was  passing  through  a  somewhat  obscure 
street  at  the  west  end  of  our  city  a  year  or 
two  since  when  my  attention  was  attracted 
to  a  narrow  court  by  a  sound  of  voices  and  a 
small  crowd  of  listeners.  From  two  open 
windows  on  the  opposite  sides  of  the  court 
projected  the  heads  and  a  considerable  por 
tion  of  the  persons,  of  two  of  the  female  sex, 
—  natives,  both  of  them,  apparently,  of  the 
green  isle,  famous  for  shamrocks  and  shilla- 
lahs.  They  were  engaged  in  argument,  if 
that  is  argument  in  which  each  of  the  two 
parties  develops  his  argument  without  the 
least  regard  to  what  the  other  is  at  the  same 
time  saying.  The  question  involved  was  the 
personal,  social,  moral,  and,  in  short,  total 
standing  and  merit  of  the  two  controversial 
ists  and  their  respective  families.  But  the 
strange  phenomenon  was  this :  The  two  wo 
men,  as  if  by  preconcerted  agreement,  like 
two  instruments  playing  a  tune  in  unison, 
were  pouring  forth  simultaneously  a  calm, 


328  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

steady,  smooth-flowing  stream  of  ntutua*  un 
dervaluation,  to  apply  a  mild  phrase  to  it ; 
never  stopping  for  punctuation,  and  barely 
giving  themselves  time  to  get  breath  between 
its  long-drawn  clauses.  The  dialogue  included 
every  conceivable  taunt  which  might  rouse 
the  fury  of  a  sensitive  mother  of  a  family, 
whose  allegiance  to  her  lord,  and  pride  in  her 
offspring,  were  points  which  it  displeased  her 
to  have  lightly  handled.  I  stood  and  listened 
like  the  quiet  groups  in  the  more  immediate 
neighborhood.  I  looked  for  some  explosion 
of  violence,  for  a  screaming  volley  of  oaths, 
for  an  hysteric  burst  of  tears,  perhaps  for  a 
missile  of  more  questionable  character  than 
an  epithet  aimed  at  the  head  and  shoulders 
projecting  opposite.  "  At  any  rate,"  I  thought, 
"  their  tongues  will  soon  run  down  ;  for  it  is 
not  in  human  nature  that  such  a  flow  of  scald 
ing  rhetoric  can  be  kept  up  very  long."  But 
I  stood  waiting  until  I  was  tired,  and  with 
labitur  et  labctur  on  my  lips,  I  left  them  pur 
suing  the  even  tenor,  or  treble  of  their  way 
in  a  duet  which  seemed  as  if  it  might  go  on 
until  nightfall. 


AUTOCRA  TIA  NA.  329 

THE   ONE-HOSS   SHAV. 

In  1880  or  1 88 1  Dr.  Holmes  was  elected 
a  member  of  the  National  Association  of 
Carriage  Builders,  perhaps  in  reference  to  his 
famous  poem,  "  The  One-Hoss  Shay,"  or 
"  Parson  Turell's  Legacy."  He  wrote  them 
the  following  note  :  — 

GENTLEMEN,  —  I  am  sorry  that  I  cannot  slip 
over  into  the  meeting  at  the  Grand  Pacific  Hotel 
in  Chicago  next  Thursday  evening  ;  but  the  stride 
would  be  a  long  one,  and  the  only  vehicle  I  was 
ever  concerned  in  building  went  to  pieces  one  day 
very  suddenly.  Besides,  I  am  just  now  working 
in  harness  as  a  lecturer,  and  if  I  should  bolt  or 
run  away  I  do  not  know  what  would  become  of 
the  college  vehicle  to  which  I  am  attached.  I 
must  therefore  content  myself  with  wishing  the 
company  a  good  time,  everybody  happy,  and  not 
one  sulky.  Yours  very  truly, 

O.  W.  HOLMES. 


APPENDIX  I. 

THE   CHORUS   OF   THE   PALANQUIN   BEARERS; 

OR, 
DR.  PALMER'S  DESCRIPTION  OF  HIS  TRANSIT  THROUGH 

COSSITOLLAH    STREET    IN    CALCUTTA. 

"  What  is  this  ?  A  close  palkee,  with  a  passen 
ger;  the  bearers,  with  elbows  sharply  crooked, 
and  calves  all  varicose,  trotting  to  a  monotonous, 
jerking  ditty,  which  the  sirdar,  or  leader,  is  impu 
dently  improvising,  to  the  refrain  of  Putterum 
(*  Easy  now ! ' ),  at  the  expense  of  their  fare's 
amour-propre. 

1  Out  of  the  way  there  I 

Putterum. 
This  is  a  Rajah  ! 

Putterum. 
Very  small  Rajah  ! 

Putterum. 
Sixpenny  Rajah  1 

Putterum. 
Holes  in  his  elbows  I 

Putterum. 
Capitan  Slipshod  I 

Putterum. 
Son  of  a  sea-cook  ! 

Putterum. 
Hush  I  he  will  beat  us  I 

Putterum. 

330 


APPENDIX  I.  331 


Hush  !  he  will  kick  us  I 

Putterum. 
Kick  us  and  curse  us  i 

Putterum. 
Not  he,  the  greenhorn  ! 

Putterum. 
Don't  understand  us  I 

Putterum. 
Don't  know  the  lingo  I 

Putterum. 
Let* s  shake  the  palkcc  I 

Putterum. 
Rattle  the  pig's  bones  I 

Putternm. 
Set  down  the  palkee  1 

Putterum. 
Call  him  a  great  lord ! 

Putterum. 
Ask  him  for  buksheesh 

Putterum.' " 


And  so  they  do  in  this  wise  :  — 

"l£uksheesh  do,  Sahib!  bitkshccsh  do!  O 
favorite  slave  of  the  Lord  !  O  tender  shepherd 
of  the  poor  !  O  sublime  and  beautiful  Being.  .  .  . 
Bestow  upon  thy  abject  and  self-despising  slave 
wherewithal  to  commemorate  the  golden  hour 
when,  by  a  blessed  dispensation,  he  was  permitted 
to  lay  his  trembling  forehead  against  thy  victori 
ous  feet.'  " 

An  explosion  of  wrath  and  threats  bursting  forth 
from  the  /<?/&?,  they  suddenly  change  their  minds 
and  their  tune,  and  as  they  go  along  chant  in  this 
style  :  — 


332  OUTER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

" '  Jeldie  jou,  jeldie .' 
(Trot  up  smartly !) 

Putterum. 
Carry  him  softly  I 

Putterum. 
Swiftly  and  smoothly  I 

Putterum. 
He  is  a  Rajah  1 

Putterum, 
Rich  little  Rajah  I 

Putterum, 
Fierce  little  Rajah  I 

Putterum. 
See  how  his  eyes  flash  ! 

Putterum. 
Hear  how  his  voice  roars  I 

Putterum. 
He  is  a  Tippoo  ! 

Putterum. 
Capitan  Tippoo  I 

Putterum. 
Tremble  before  him  1 

Putterum. 
Serve  him  and  please  him  I 

Putterum. 
Please  him  and  serve  him  I 

Putterum. 
He  will  reward  us  ! 

Putterum. 
He  will  protect  us  1 

Putterum. 
He  will  enrich  us  ! 

Putterum. 
Charity,  Lard  Sa'b  I 

Putterum. 
Out  of  the  way  there  I 

Putterum. 
Way  for  the  great  .  .  . 

Putterum. 


APPENDIX  I.  333 

Rajah  of  ten  crorcs  I 

Putter  .  .  . 
.  .  .  Ten  crorcs  1 

Putter  .  .  . 
Rajah 

Put  .  .  . 
.  .  .  Lard  .... 

Putter  .  .  . 

Sa'bl 

....  rum* 

"  And  so  they  have  turned  down  Flag  Street." 

Atlantic  Monthly,  January,  1858. 


APPENDIX  II. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Published  Works  to  Date,  including  Contributions 
to  Periodical  Literature.      With  Notes. 

Poetical  Illustrations  of  the  Athenaeum  Gallery  of 
Paintings.  [Joint  Author.]  Boston  :  True  & 
Greene.  1827. 

This  little  volume  consists  of  poems,  chiefly  satirical,  written  by 
John  Osborne  Sargent,  Park  Benjamin,  and  Holmes. 

The  Harbinger:  A  May  Gift,  dedicated  to  the 
ladies  who  have  so  kindly  aided  the  New  Eng 
land  Institution  for  the  Blind.  [Joint  Editor.] 
Boston:  Carter,  Hendee,  &  Co.  1833.  i2mo, 
pp.  96. 

A  collection  of  poems  edited  by  Holmes  and  John  Osborne 
Sargent. 

Poems.     Boston  :  Otis,  Broaders,  &  Co.     1836. 

The  first  collected  edition. 

Boylston  Prize  Dissertations  for  the  years  1836 
and  1837.  Boston  :  Charles  C.  Little  &  James 
Brown.  1838. 

Dedicated  to  Pierre  Cha.  Alex.  Louis,  Doctor  of  Medicine  of  the 
faculties  of  Paris  and  St.  Petersburg.  The  dissertations  are  three 
in  number:  (i)  On  Indigenous  Intermittent  Fever  in  New  Eng 
land.  (2)  On  Neuralgia.  (3)  On  Direct  Exploration. 

334 


APPENDIX  11.  335 

Marshall  Hall's  Principles  of  the  Theory  and 
Practice  of  Medicine.  First  American  edition, 
revised  and  enlarged  by  Jacob  Bigelow  and 
O.  W.  Holmes.  [Joint  Editor.]  Boston.  1839. 

Homoeopathy  and  its  Kindred  Delusions :  Two 
Lectures  delivered  before  the  Boston  Society  for 
the  Diffusion  of  Useful  Knowledge.  Boston  : 
William  D.  Ticknor.  1842. 

The  Position  and  Prospects  of  the  Medical  Stu 
dent.  An  Address  delivered  before  the  Boy  1s- 
ton  Medical  Society  of  Harvard  University, 
January  12,  1844.  Boston  :  John  Putnam, 
Printer.  1844. 

Urania :  A  Rhymed  Lesson.  Pronounced  before 
the  Mercantile  Library  Association.  Boston. 
1846.  Svo. 

Report  of  the  Committee  on  Medical  Literature. 
Published  in  Transactions  of  the  American 
Medical  Association,  Volume  I.  1847. 

An  Introductory  Lecture,  delivered  at  the  Massa 
chusetts  Medical  College,  November  3,  1847. 
Boston  :  William  D.  Ticknor  &  Co.  1847. 

See  Boston  Mtdual  and  Surgical  Journal,  xxxviii.,  384  and 
408. 

Astraea :  The  Balance  of  Illusions.  A  Poem  de 
livered  before  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society  of 


336  OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES 

Yale  College,  August  14,  1850.     Boston  :  Tick- 
nor,  Reed,  &  Fields.     1850. 

A  slender  volume  bound  in  boards  and  salmon-colored  paper. 

Poem,  delivered  at  the  dedication  of  the  Pittsfield 
Cemetery,  September  9,  1850. 

The  Benefactors  of  the  Medical  School  of  Har 
vard  University ;  with  a  biographical  sketch  of 
the  late  Dr.  George  Parkman.  An  Introduc 
tory  Lecture  delivered  at  the  Massachusetts 
Medical  College,  November  7,  1850.  Boston  : 
Ticknor,  Reed,  &  Fields.  1850. 

The  Contagiousness  of  Puerperal  Fever.  Read 
in  1843  before  the  Boston  Society  for  Medical 
Improvement.  Reprinted  from  New  England 
Quarterly  Journal  of  Medicine  and  Surgery. 
Boston.  1855. 

Oration  delivered  before  the  New  England  Society 
in  the  city  of  New  York,  at  their  Semi-Centen- 
nial  Anniversary,  December  22,  1855.  New 
York  :  Wm.  C.  Bryant  &  Co. 

Published  in  the  Society's  Report  of  the  Semi-Centcnnial  Cele 
bration,  New  York,  1856. 

The  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast-Table.  Every  Man 
his  own  Boswell.  Boston  :  Ticknor  &  Fields. 
1858. 

The  first  octavo  edition  had  illustrations.  The  second  —  pub 
lished  in  1883  —  15  furnished  with  a  new  preface  and  notes  by  Dr. 
Holmes. 


APPENDIX  II.  337 

Valedictory  Address  to  the  Medical  Graduates 
of  Harvard  University,  March  10,  1858.  Bos 
ton  :  David  Clapp,  184  Washington  Street. 
1858. 

Also  published  in  the  Boston  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal, 
Iviii,  1 49- 1 59. 

The  Professor  at  the  Breakfast-Table  ;  with  the 
story  of  Iris.  Boston :  Ticknor  &  Fields.  1859. 

Currents  and  Counter-Currents  in  Medical  Sci 
ence  :  An  Address  delivered  before  the  Massa 
chusetts  Medical  Society  at  the  annual  meeting, 
May  30,  1860.  Boston:  Ticknor  &  Fields. 
1860. 

Vive  la  France!  Poem  read  by  Dr.  Holmes  at  the 
dinner  given  to  H.  I.  H.  the  Prince  Napoleon, 
September  25,  1861.  Cambridge :  Privately 
printed.  1861. 

Printed  along  with  the  address  of  Edward  Everett,  given  on  the 
same  occasion,  in  a  slender,  cream-colored  libret 

Elsie  Venner :  A  Romance  of  Destiny.  Boston  : 
Ticknor  &  Fields.  1861. 

Songs  in  Many  Keys.  Boston  :  Ticknor  &  Fields. 
1861. 

Dedicated  to  the  poet's  mother. 

Border  Lines  of  Knowledge  in  some  Provinces  of 
Medical  Science.  An  Introductory  Lecture 
delivered  before  the  Medical  Class  of  Harvard 


338  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

University,  November  6,  1861.     Boston:  Tick- 
nor  &:  Fields.     1862. 

A  class  lecture  which  treats  of  the  work  of  Chemistry  and  the 
Microscope  in  medicine  and  in  physiology,  accompanied  by  practical 
remarks  addressed  to  the  students. 

Edward  Stafford's  Medical  Directions  written  for 
Governor  Winthrop  in  1643,  with  Notes  by 
O.  W.  Holmes.  [Annotator.]  Boston.  1862. 

Oration  delivered  before  the  City  Authorities  of 
Boston,  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  1863.  Boston : 
Ticknor  £  Fields.  1863. 

Reprinted  in  Philadelphia  in  1863  for  gratuitous  distribution. 
Also  republished  in  Holmes'  "  Soundings  from  the  Atlantic" 

Soundings  from  the  Atlantic.  Boston :  Ticknor 
&  Fields.  1863. 

Dedicated  to  Jacob  Bigelow. 

Teaching  from  the  Chair  and  at  the  Bedside.  An 
Introductory  Lecture  delivered  before  the  Medi 
cal  Class  of  Harvard  University,  November  6, 
1867.  Boston  :  David  Clapp  &  Son.  1867. 

The  Guardian  Angel.  Boston  :  Ticknor  &  Fields. 
1867. 

Dedicated  to  James  T.  Fields. 

Atlantic  Almanac  for  1868.  [Joint  Editor  with 
Donald  G.  Mitchell.]  Boston :  Ticknor  & 
Fields,  Office  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly.  1868. 

This  annual  contains  by  Holmes  "The  Seasons  "  (1868,  p.  2) ; 
and  "Talk  concerning  the  Human  Body  and  its  Management" 
(1869,  p.  47). 


AFPEXDIX  11.  339 

The  Medical  Profession  in  Massachusetts.  A 
Lecture  read  at  the*  Lowell  Institute,  January 
29,  1869. 

Published  by  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  in  1869,  in 
a  volume  entitled  "  Lectures  delivered  in  a  Course  before  the  Lowell 
Institute,  in  Boston,  by  Members  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society,  on  Subjects  Relating  to  the  Early  History  of  Massachu 
setts." 

Valedictory  Address,  delivered  to  the  Graduating 
Class  of  the  Bellevue  Hospital  College,  March 
2,  1871.  New  York.  1871. 

Reprinted  from  the  New  York  Medical  Journal,  April,  1871. 

Mechanism  in  Thought  and  Morals.  An  Address 
delivered  before  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society  of 
Harvard  University,  June  29,  1870,  with  Notes 
and  Afterthoughts.  Boston :  Jas.  R.  Osgood  & 
Co.  1871. 

The  Claims  of  Dentistry.  An  Address  delivered 
at  the  Commencement  Exercises  of  the  Dental 
Department  in  Harvard  University,  February 
14,  1872.  Boston  :  Printed  by  Rand,  Avery, 
&  Co.  1872. 

The  Poet  at  the  Breakfast-Table.  Boston  :  James 
R.  Osgood  &  Co.  1873. 

Professor  Jeffries  Wyman.  A  Memorial  Out 
line  reprinted  from  the  Atlantic  Monthly  for 
November,  1874.  Boston  and  Cambridge. 
1874. 


340  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLME '8. 

Songs  of  Many  Seasons.  1862-1874.  Boston  : 
James  R.  Osgood  &  Co.*  1874. 

An  Address  delivered  at  the  Annual  Meeting  of 
the  Boston  Microscopical  Society.  Reprinted 
from  Boston  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal,  May 
24,  1877.  Cambridge:  The  Riverside  Press. 
1877. 

Visions :  A  Study  of  False  Sight  (Pseudopia). 
By  Edward  Hammond  Clarke,  M.D.  With  an 
Introduction  and  Memorial  Sketch  by  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes,  M.D.  [Editor.]  Boston  : 
Houghton,  Osgood,  &  Co.  1878. 

The  School-Boy.  Illustrated.  Boston :  Hough- 
ton,  Osgood,  &  Co.  1878. 

John  Lothrop  Motley.  A  Memoir.  Boston  : 
Houghton,  Osgood,  &  Co.  1878. 

The  Iron  Gate,  and  Other  Poems.  Boston : 
Houghton,  Mifflin,  £  Co.  1880. 

Address  delivered  at  the  Dedication  of  the  Hall 
of  the  Boston  Medical  Library  Association,  19 
Boylston  Place,  on  December  3,  1878.  Cam 
bridge :  The  Riverside  Press.  1881. 

Address  on  Emerson.  Published  in  the  Massa 
chusetts  Historical  Society's  "  Tribute  to  Long 
fellow  and  Emerson."  (Portraits.)  Boston : 
A.  Williams  £  Co.  1882. 


APPENDIX  II. 


341 


CONTRIBUTIONS   TO    PERIODICAL    LIT 
ERATURE. 

THE    ATLANTIC     MONTHLY. 

NOTE.  —  Poems  arc  marked  with  an  *,  and  prose  articles  not  else 
where  reprinted  with  a  f. 

The  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast-Table, Vols.  I.  and 
II.  (1857)  ;  t  Homoeopathic  Domestic  Physician,  I. 
250  (1857);  f  Agassiz's  Natural  History,  I.  320 
(1858);  tParthenia  (Lee),  1.509(1858);  A  Visit  to 
Autocrat's  Landlady,  II.  738  (1858);  *  The  Last 
Look,  II.  749  (1858);  f  Brief  Expositions  of 
Rational  Medicine,  II.  763  (1858);  fThe  Auto 
crat  gives  a  Breakfast  to  the  Public,  II.  889 
(1858)  ;  t  Mothers  and  Infants,  Nurses  and 
Nursing,  III.  645  (1858);  The  Professor  at  the 
Breakfast-Table,  III.  and  IV.  (1859);  The  Ster 
eoscope  and  the  Stereograph,  III.  738  (1859); 
t  Love  (Michelet),  IV.  391  (1859);  f  The  Under 
graduate,  V.  382  (1860);  The  Professor's  Story, 
V.  and  VI.  (1860);  A  Visit  to  the  Asylum  for 
Aged  and  Decayed  Punsters,  VII.  113  (1861); 
*  Brother  Jonathan's  Lament  for  Sister  Caroline, 
VII.  613  (i860;  "Array Hymn, VII. 757(1861); 
Sun  Painting  and  Sun  Sculpture,  VIII.  13  (1861),' 
•Parting  Hymn,  VIII.  235  (1861);  Bread  and 
the  Newspaper,  VIII.  346  (1861);  fThe  Worm 
wood  Cordial  of  History,  VIII.  507  (1861)  ; 
•The  Flower  of  Liberty,  VIII.  550  (1861)  ; 


342  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

*  Union  and  Liberty,  VIII.  756  (1861);    *  Voy 
age  of   the  Good  Ship  Union,  IX.  398  (1862)  ; 
*The   Poet  to  his  Readers,  X.  118  (1862);   My 
Hunt  after  the  Captain,  X.  738  (1862)  ;  *  "  Choose 
ye  this  Day  whom  ye  will  Serve,"  XI.  288  (1863) ; 
The  Human  Wheel,  its  Spokes  and  Felloes,  XL 
567  (1863);  Doings  of  the  Sunbeam,  XII.  i  (1863)  ; 
The  Great   Instrument,   XII.  637  (1863);  fThe 
Minister  Plenipotentiary,  XIII.  106  (1864)  ;  *  The 
Last  Charge,  XIII.  244  (1864)  ;  *  Our  Classmate, 
XIII.  329  (1864);   t  Our  Progressive   Independ 
ence,    XIII.    497    (1864);    *  Shakespeare,    XIII. 
762  (1864);   t  Hawthorne,  XIV.  98  (1864);  *  In 
Memory   of   J.   W.  — R.  W.,  XIV.   115    (1864); 

*  Bryant's  Seventieth  Birthday,  XIV.  738  (1864); 
*God   save   Jthe    Flag,   XV.    115    (1865);   *  Our 
Oldest    Friend,    XV.    340    (1865)  ;    *  Our    First 
Citizen,  XV.  462  (1865)  ;  t  Our  Battle  Laureate, 

XV.  589  (1865);  *No  Time  like  the  Old  Time, 

XVI.  398  (1865);  *  A  Farewell   to  Agassiz,  XVI. 
584   (1865);   *My    Annual,    XVII.    395    (1866); 
The   Guardian    Angel,    XIX.    and    XX.    (1867); 

*  All  Here,  1829-1867,  XIX.  323  (1867) ;  *  Chan 
son    without    Music,    XX.    543    (1867);    *  Once 
More,  XXI.  430  (1868);  *Bill  and  Joe,  XXII. 
313  (1868;    f  Cinders  from   the    Ashes,  XXIII. 
115    (1869);    *  Bonaparte,   XXIV.  637  (1869); 

*  Nearing    the    Snow-Line,    XXV.    86    (1870)  ; 

*  Even-Song,   XXV.  349  (1870);   *  Dorothy  Q., 
XXVII.  120  (1871);  fLife  of  Major  John  Andre*, 


APPENDIX  ii.  343 

XXVIII.  121  (1871);  The  Poet  at  the  Breakfast- 
Table,  Vols.  XXIX.  and  XXX.  (1872);  *  After 
the  Fire,  XXXI.  96  (1872);  *  The  Fountain  of 
Youth,  XXXII.  209  (1873);  *  A  Poem  served  to 
Order,  XXXII.  296  (1873);  t  Sex  in  Education 
(Dr.  Clarke),  XXXII.  737  (1873);  *  An  Old  Year 
Song,  XXXIII.  101  (1874);  *A  Ballad  of  the 
Boston  Tea-Party,  XXXIII.  219  (1874)  ;  Professor 
Jeffries  Wyman,  XXXIV.  611  (1874);  f  The 
Americanized  European,  XXXV.  75  (1875)  ; 
t  Crime  and  Automatism,  XXXV.  466  (1875); 
*  Old  Cambridge,  XXXVI.  237  (1876) ;  f  Exotics, 
XXXVI.  356  (1876);  *A  Familiar  Letter  (to 
several  correspondents),  XXXVII.  103  (1876)  ; 
*"Ad  Amicos,"  1829-1876,  XXXVII.  314 
(1876) ;  *  A  Memorial  Tribute  (to  Samuel  G. 
Howe),  XXXVII.  464  (1876);  *How  the  Old 
Horse  won  the  Bet,  XXXVIII.  44  (1876)  ; 
*The  First  Fan,  XXXIX.  659  (1877);  *  How 
Not  to  Settle  It,  XXXIX.  257  (1877);  *  My 
Aviary,  XLI.  122  (1878);  *The  Silent  Melody, 
XLII.  335  (1878)  ;  *  Vestigia  Quinque  Retrorsum, 
XLIV.  238  (1879) ;  *  The  Coming  Era,  XLV.  84 
(1880)  ;  *  The  Archbishop  and  Gil  Bias,  XLVI. 
205  (1880);  *  Benjamin  Peirce,  XLVI.  824 

(1880)  ;     *  Boston     to     Florence,    XLVII.    412 

(1881)  ;  *  Post-Prandial  :  Phi  Beta  Kappa,  1881, 
XLVIII.  365  (1881);  *Our  Dead  Singer,  XLIX. 
721    (1882);    *  Before   the   Curfew,  XLIX.  386 

(1882)  ;   *  At  the  Summit,  L.  164  (1882)  ;   t  An 


344  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

After-Breakfast   Talk,  LI.  65  (1883)  ;    *  Loving- 
Cup  Song,  LI.  349  (1883). 

BUCKINGHAM'S  NEW  ENGLAND  MAGAZINE. 
The  volumes  for  1831,  1832,  and  1833  contain 
contributions  by  Holmes  as  follows  :  Vol.  I. 
(1831),  "To  an  Insect";  "A  Week  of  Frailty" 
(describes  a  little  street  flirtation)  ;  "  My  Aunt  " 
(poem);  "The  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast-Table 
(I.).— Vol.  II.  (1832)  contains:  "Old  Books"  (a 
bit  of  sentimental  bibliomania)  ;  "  The  Autocrat 
of  the  Breakfast-Table  "  (II.)  ;  "  The  Destroyers  " 
(poem);  "The  Debut."— Vol.  III.  (1833)  con 
tains,  in  a  humorous  paper  by  the  editors  which  is 
styled  "  Report  of  the  Editorial  Department,"  a 
poetical  production  by  Holmes,  headed  "  A  New 
Year's  Address." 

THE   NORTH   AMERICAN    REVIEW. 

The  "  Mechanism  of  Vital  Actions  "  was  pub 
lished  in  the  North  American  Review  for  July, 
1857;  the  "Allston  Exhibition"  of  paintings  in 
the  same  for  April,  1840;  and  "The  Pulpit  and 
the  Pew"  in  the  same  for  February,  1881. 

THE    INTERNATIONAL    REVIEW. 

The  essay  on  "  Jonathan  Edwards  "  appeared 
in  the  International  Review,  Vol.  IX.  p.  i  (1880). 
Edwin  Arnold's  "  Light  of  Asia  "  is  reviewed  in 
the  same  for  October,  1879. 


APPENDIX  II.  345 


NEW  ENGLAND  QUARTERLY  JOURNAL   OF    MEDICINE 
AND   SURGERY. 

Dr.  Holmes'  "  Contagiousness  of  Puerperal 
Fever  "  was  first  published  in  the  New  England 
Quarterly  Journal  of  Medicine  and  Surgery,  1843, 
edited  by  Drs.  Charles  E.  Ware  and  Samuel  Park- 
man  :  only  one  volume  of  the  periodical  was  pub 
lished. 

PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   AMERICAN   ACADEMY. 

The  Proceedings  of  the  American  Academy  of 
Arts  and  Sciences  contains  two  communications 
from  Dr.  Holmes.  Vol.  II.,  pp.  326-332,  has  a 
paper  "  On  the  Use  of  Direct  Light  in  Micro 
scopical  Researches,"  and  a  model  by  him  of  a 
newly-invented  horizontal  microscopical  apparatus 
is  figured.  In  Vol.  IV.,  pp.  373-375,  the  term 
"  Reflex  Vision  "  is  proposed  as  a  phrase  proper 
to  certain  original  optical  experiments,  an  account 
of  which  is  given. 

BOSTON    MEDICAL   AND   SURGICAL   JOURNAL. 

Microscopic  Preparations,  XLVIII.337;  Lines 
written  for  the  Eighth  Anniversary  of  the  Ameri 
can  Medical  Association,  LI  I.  305  ;  The  Dental 
Cosmos  (review  of),  VIII.  (new  series),  No.  I.  p. 
99;  Rip  Van  Winkle,  M.D. :  An  After-Dinner 
Prescription,  taken  by  the  Massachusetts  Medical 
Society  at  their  meeting  held  May  25,  1870; 


346  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

Address  at  Commencement  Exercises  of  Dental 
Department  in  Harvard  University,  February  14, 
1877,  IX.  (new  series),  9  ;  The  Physiology  of  Ver 
sification,  XCII.  6-9  ;  Poem  on  Joseph  Warren, 
XCII.  703;  Letter  on  Dr.  J.  B.  S.  Jackson, 
xcv-  393-395  ;  Letter  to  Dr.  George  E.  Ellis, 
CIV.  No.  25,  p.  593  ;  Poem  written  for  the  Cen 
tennial  Anniversary  Dinner  of  the  Massachusetts 
Medical  Society,  June  8,  1881,  CIV.  No.  25,  pp. 
577-58o;  Speech  on  occasion  of  the  Presenta 
tion  of  a  Portrait  of  Dr.  J.  B.  S.  Jackson  to  the 
Boston  Medical  Library  Association,  CIV.  No. 
24,  pp.  560,  561. 

THE    KNICKERBOCKER    MAGAZINE 

Contains  a  few  youthful  articles  by  Holmes  which 
might  perhaps  be  identified. 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL   NOTES. 

THE  first  edition  of  the  poems  was  published  in 
1836,  by  Otis,  Broaders  &  Co.,  Boston.  The  first 
English  edition  was  published  in  1845.  London: 
O.  Rich  &  Sons,  12  Red  Lion  Square.  In  1852 
Routledge  published  one  edition,  and  another  in 

1853- 

"  Elsie  Venner "  has  been  translated  and 
abridged  (with  notes)  by  E.  D.  Forgues,  in  the 


APPENDIX  n.  347 

des  Deux  Mondcs  for  June  15  and  July  i, 
1 86 1.  The  poem  "There's  no  Time  like  the  Old 
Time  "  has  been  translated  by  Karl  Knortz  and 
published  in  his  "  Amerikanische  Gedichte  der 
Neuzeit."  Leipsic.  1882. 

A  portion  of  the  manuscript  of  "  The  Voyage 
of  the  Good  Ship  Union  "  (poem)  may  be  seen  in 
a  glass  case  in  the  engraving-room  of  the  Harvard 
College  Library. 

The  "Story  of  Iris"  (from  "The  Professor  at 
the  Breakfast-Table ")  has  been  published  in  a 
separate  form  in  Vol.  XXX.  of  the  Vest-Pocket 
Series  of  Modern  Classics. 

A  volume  of  "  Holmes  Leaflets "  has  been 
edited  by  Josephine  E.  Hodgson. 

Holmes'  "Army  Hymn"  was  composed  for 
solo  and  chorus  by  Dresel,  on  the  occasion  of 
the  Beethoven  Festival  in  Music  Hall,  March  i, 
1856. 

For  articles  in  "  The  Atlantic  Almanac,"  see  the 
present  Bibliography  (1868). 

The  manuscript  of  the  poem,  "  Bonaparte,  Aug 
ust  15,  1769 — Humboldt,  September  14,  1769," 
may  be  seen  in  the  Boston  Public  Library. 

The  poem  entitled  "  Grandmother's  Story  of  the 
Bunker  Hill  Battle  as  she  saw  it  from  the  Belfry," 
was  originally  printed  in  a  volume  entitled  "  Me 
morial.  Bunker  Hill,  June  17,  1775-1875,  with 
illustrations  by  Harris  M.  Stevenson."  Boston  : 
James  R.  Osgood  &  Co.  1875.  A  curiosity  in 


348  OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES. 

the  typographical  art  is  a  folio  copy  of  the  above 
poem  printed  in  mammoth  type,  —  the  lines  being 
a  foot  across  the  page,  —  and  to  be  seen  at  the 
Boston  Public  Library.  It  was  privately  printed, 
and  only  six  copies  were  struck  off.  The  one  in 
the  Public  Library  has  written  on  it  in  pencil  the 
words,  "  For  old  eyes."  In  a  remarkable  volume 
of  autographic  material  on  the  battles  of  Lexing 
ton,  Concord,  and  Bunker  Hill,  which  has  been 
made  by  Judge  Mellen  Chamberlain,  Librarian 
of  the  Boston  Public  Library,  may  be  seen  ^n 
entire  manuscript  copy  of  the  just-mentioned 
poem. 

Dr.  Holmes  furnished  an  additional  stanza  (the 
fifth)  for  Francis  Scott  Key's  "Star-Spangled 
Banner  :  Song  and  Chorus." 

The  "Visit  to  the  Asylum  for  Aged  and  Decayed 
Punsters  "  (from  "  Soundings  from  the  Atlantic  ") 
may  be  found  in  Vol  V.  of  Rossiter  Johnson's 
"Little  Classics." 

The  Autocrat  has  two  articles  in  "  The  Harvard 
Book "  (Cambridge :  Welch,  Bigelow,  £  Co. 
1875),  namely,  "  The  Medical  School,"  Vol.  L,  and 
"The  Holmes  Estate,"  Vol.  II. 

As  a  member  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society  he  has  made  various  speeches  and  com 
municated  various  papers  which  are  printed  in  the 
Proceedings  of  the  Society  and  may  be  sought  in 
the  indexes  to  the  same. 

In  Vol.   III.   of   "The  Boston  Book"  (1841) 


APPEXDIX  II.  349 

was  published  Holmes'  poem,  "  Departed  Days," 
and  his  "  Morning  Visit." 

Dr.  Holmes'  Farewell  Lecture  before  the  stu 
dents  of  the  Harvard  Medical  School  is  published 
in  the  Boston  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal  for 
December  7,  1882  ;  also  in  separate  form  by  A. 
Williams  &  Co.,  Boston. 

In  1852  he  delivered  a  course  of  lectures  on 
"  The  English  Poets  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  " 
(still  unpublished). 

In  November,  1864,  he  gave  a  lecture  in  Cam 
bridge,  Massachusetts,  before  the  Dowse  Institute, 
entitled  "  New  England's  Master-Key.*' 

In  The  Token  and  Atlantic  Souvenir  (edited  by 
S.  G.  Goodrich,  Boston,  1838)  will  be  found 
Holmes'  poem,  "  The  Only  Daughter."  It  accom 
panies  an  engraving  by  J.  Andrews,  from  a  paint 
ing  by  G.  S.  Newton.  "  The  only  daughter  is  rep 
resented  as  an  old-fashioned-looking  child,  with 
short  hair  and  side-combs,  enormous  puffed  sleeves 
to  her  dress,  which  is  cut  low  in  the  neck  and  over 
which  is  tied  a  black  silk  apron  with  pockets, 
while  for  ornament  she  wears  a  long  string  of 
beads  which  goes  twice  around  her  neck,  and  is 
tucked  in  her  belt." 

The  following  poems  have  been  set  to  music: 
Angel  of  Peace  (Qt.),  M.  Keller;  Army  Hymn 
(for  Solo  and  Chorus),  Dresel  ;  Evening  Thought, 
Y.  Van  Antwerp ;  Hymn  of  Peace  (Qt.\  M.  Kel 
ler  ;  Song  of  a  Clerk,  A.  J.  Goodrich  ;  There's  no 


350  OLIVER   WENDELL  HOLMES. 

Time  like  the  Old  Time  (Song  and  Chorus), 
A.  B.  Hutchinson  ;  Welcome  to  the  Nations  (Qt.), 
M.  Keller. 

Dr.  Holmes'  medical  lectures  have  occasionally 
been  reprinted  in  English  journals,  such  as  the 
London  Lancet. 


INDEX. 


A. 

Advertiser,  Boston  Daily,  101, 

287. 

jfcolian  Attachment,  the,  317. 
Aldrich,  Thomas  Bailey, ' * 70. 
Allen,  Col.  Ethan,  44. 
Allopathy,  303-307. 
Alphabet,  twenty-seventh  letter 

of  the,  325. 
American  Monthly  Magazine, 

loS. 

Anaesthesia,  discovery  of,  196. 
Andrew,  Governor,  152. 
Anglicism    of    Holmes'    style, 

284-289. 

u  Army  Hymn,"  347. 
Art  Gallery,  91. 
u  Artillery  Election,"  66. 
Athenxum  Library,  91. 
Atlantic  Almanac,  338. 
Atlantic  Club,  the,  breakfast  of, 

»35-'39- 
Atlantic  Monthly,  founded,  132- 

136;   Breakfast  to    Holmes, 

21 5  W 
"Autocrat    of    the    Breakfast- 

Table,"  ,33,  ,40-149. 


Back  Bay,  153. 

Bcccher,  Henry  Ward,  195. 


Benjamin,  Park,  106,  109,  113. 
Berkeley,  Bishop,  296. 
Berkshire  Region,  123-125. 
Beverly  Farms,  116,  222-224. 
Biglow,  William,  68. 
Boccaccio,  311. 
Books,  321. 
Books  read  by  Holmes  when  a 

boy,  67. 
Boston  a  half  century  ago,  112, 

"3- 

Boston  Book,  the,  348. 
Boylston  prizes,  113,  114. 
"  Boys,  The,"  274. 
Bradstrect,  Mrs.  Anne  Dudley, 

26  -30. 

Bradstrects,  the,  26-30. 
Breakfast,  the  Holmes,  215  sqq. 
Breitmann,  Hans,  273. 
Brid^man,  Thomas,  15. 
British,  criticism  of  the,   197, 

198. 

Bugbec,  E.  Holmes,  31. 
Bunker  Hill,  348. 


Channing,  Dr.  William  EHery, 

30- 
Charles   River,   152,   153,  203, 

204. 
Clarke,  Dr.  Edward  Hammond, 

39- 


352 


IHDEX. 


Clarke,  James  Freeman,  100, 
209,  281. 

Clarke,  Miss  L.,  209. 

Clarke,  Rev.  Pitt,  39. 

Clarke,  Sarah  Freeman,  91. 

Classmates,  enumerated,  So,  278; 
see  also,  274-276. 

Class  poems,  274-276. 

Class  poet,  So. 

Collegian,  The,  97-100. 

Commencement  Day,  92-96. 

Cooper,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel, 
205. 

Corolla,  the  Spiral,  324. 

Criticising,  317;  Unpremedi 
tated,  323. 

Curtis,  Benjamin  R.,  8^,  85. 

Curtis,  George  T.,  108. 

Curtis,  George  William,  229, 
230. 

D. 

Daly,     Chief    Justice,    22,    23 

(note). 

"  Daughter,  The  Only,"  349. 
D'Estaing,  Admiral,  22. 
Dixwell,  E.  S.,  116. 
Dixwell,  Miss  Fanny,  116. 
"  Dorothy  Q.,"  20,  205. 


Edwards,  Jonathan,  264,  265. 
Eliot,   President    Charles    W.f 

122,  123. 
"Elsie  Venner,"  156,  163-175, 

346. 
Emerson,  Charles  Chaunccy,  82- 


Emerson,  poem  "  Brahma,"  132 
(note),  221. 

"  English  Poets  of  the  Nine 
teenth  Century,"  125. 

Euthanasia,  320. 

Ex  Nihilo  Nihil  Fit,  318. 

"  Exotics,"  209. 

Exuviae,  Our  Moral,  319. 

F. 

Fclton,  C.  C,  84. 
Fields,  James  T.,  152. 
Folsom,  the  Hon.  George,  146 
(note).  . 

FreeWill,  166,  167. 
Fuller,  Margaret,  70. 

G. 

G  am  br  el -roofed  House,  39,  41, 
42,  46,  52-58,  102. 

Gannct,  Ezra  Styles,  84. 

Garden,  the,  58-63. 

Goodalc  sisters,  125. 

"  Grandmother's  Story  of  Bun 
ker  Hill  Battle,"  347,  348. 

"Guardian  Angel,  The,"  175- 
180. 

Gunpowder,  319. 

H. 

Hahnemann,  297,  298,  301. 
Hancock,  John,  19. 
Harbinger,  The,  106. 
Harpers  Monthly  Afagaziw, 

16. 
Harvard   Book,  articles   in  by 

Holmes,  348. 


Harvard  Register,  83. 
Hanard  Register  (the  first), 

too. 

Hawthorne's  burial,  199,  200. 
Higginson,  Col.  T.  W.,  41. 
Holmes,  Abiel,  n,    19,  37-45, 

49- 

Holmes,  Amelia  Jackson,  116. 
Holmes,  Edward,  116. 
Holmes  family,  30-45. 
Holmes  John,  65,  93  ;  letters  of, 

219,  220,  221. 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  stud 
ies  law,  96 ;  studies  medicine, 
96;  in   the  pulpit,  97;  con 
tributes  to  the  Collegian,  97  ; 
first  poem,  98  ;  studies  medi 
cine  in  Boston,  103,  104  ;  bib- 
liophilism,  104-106;  sails  for 
Europe,  106;  first  volume  of 
poems,    109-111;    practising 
physician,    in,     112;     wins 
Boylston    prizes,    114;    pro 
fessor    at    Dartmouth,   114; 
married,   115;  at    Montgom 
ery  Place,  115,  116;  accepts 
chair     in     Harvard     Medical 
School,  119;  summering*  at 
PitUfield,  123 ;  lectures  on  the 
English  poets,  125  ;  as  a  lec 
turer,  126,  127;  helps  found 
The  Atlantic,  135  ;  visits  Ir 
ving,  150;  removes  to  Charles 
Street,  152;  attitude  toward 
slavery,  181-184;  h>»  patriot 
ism,   184,   190;   removes   to 
Beacon   Street,  202  ;  resigns 
position  as  Harvard  professor, 
224 ;  and  delivers  la*t  lecture 


353 

at  Medical  School,  225-228  ; 
humor,  237;  egotism,  242, 
243 ;  genius,  243,  244  ;  indige 
nous,  245,  246 ;  love  of  natu:  e, 
246-248;  class  feeling,  or 
caste,  248-256 ;  theology,  256- 
266;  religious  nature,  261, 
266  ;  class  poems,  274-276 ; 
epochs  in  his  poetical  life, 
278,  279;  condensation  of 
thought,  280,  281  ;  Anglicism 
of  style,  284-289;  as  scien 
tific  writer,  292-315. 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  Jr., 
116-118. 

Holyoke,  Dr.  Edward  Augustus, 
3".312- 

Homoeopathy,  295-303. 

Howe,  Dr.  Samuel  G.,  106. 

Hood,  287,  288. 

"  Human  Wheel,  The  "  194. 


Illusion,  316. 

'•  Independence,  Our  Progress 
ive,"  195. 

Indian  summer,  324. 

Indian,  the,  316. 

"In  Memonam"  stanza,  the, 
40. 

Invalidism,  318. 

Iris,  154,  163,283,347. 

Irving,  Washington,  visited  by 
Holmes,  150. 

J. 

Jackson,  Dr.  James,  103. 
Jackson,  Mary,  19. 


354 


INDEX. 


K. 

Key,  Francis  Scott,  348. 
Kirkland,  President,  78. 
Koeymans'  man       ,  16. 


Leland,  Charles  G.,  273. 
Lincoln,    Abraham,    no,    in, 

252. 
Louis,  Pierre  Cha.  Alex.,  226, 

334- 
Lowell,  50. 

M. 

Massachusetts  Historical  So 
ciety,  348. 

McKcnzie,  Dr.  Alex.,  38  (note). 

Mechanism  in  Thought  and 
Morals,  263,  309. 

Medical  lectures,  122,  350. 

Medical  School,  119-122;  re 
port  of  a  recitation  at,  120, 
121  ;  farewell  lecture  at,  225- 
228,  and  349. 

Memorial  Hall,  46. 

Microscopical  researches  and 
•studies,  293,  294. 

Miller,  Joaquin,  252. 

Montgomery  Place,  115,  116. 

Mother,  The  Poet's,  14,  19,  39, 

337- 

Motley,  81,  82,  113. 
Music,  poems  set  to,  349. 

N. 

Nancy,  Aunt,  208. 
Nation,  T/ie,  criticises  Holmes, 
179,  180. 


"  Negro  Plot,"  57. 

"  New  England's  Master-Key," 

349- 

New  England  Magazine,  104. 
"  Nigger  'lection,"  66. 
Novels,  general  remarks  on  Dr. 

Holmes',  157-163. 

o. 

Ok  en's  Dictum,  310. 

Old  Corner  Bookstore,  113. 

"Old  Ironsides,"  100,  102. 

Old  Wine  in  New  Bottles,  317. 

Oliver,  Dr.  James,  18,  24-26. 

Oliver  family,  23-26. 

Oliver,  General   Henry   K.,  86, 

89,  90. 

Oliver,  Sarah,  18. 
One-Hoss  Shay,  The,  329. 
Optical  Researches,  293. 
Organ  of  Music  Hall,  194. 
Otis,  Mrs.  H.  Gray,  106. 

P. 

Palfrey,  Cazneau,  85. 

Palmer,  Dr.  John  Williamson, 

'38>  !39  (see  Appendix  I). 
Paris,  Holmes  in,  106,  107. 
Parker  House,  252. 
Peabody,  Dr.  A.  P.,  87. 
Peirce,  Professor  Benjamin,  276- 

278. 

Pepys,  239,  240. 
Phi  Beta  Kappa,  107. 
Philadelphia,    Swedes'   Church 

in,  15. 

Phillips  family,  18. 
Phillips,  Wendell,  30. 


355 


Piano-playing,  206. 

Pittsfield,  residence  of  Holmes 
at,  123. 

Poenis,  the  best,  290,  201. 

"  Poet  at  the  Breakfast-Table," 
205,  209. 

Poetical  Composition,  descrip 
tion  of,  200- 2 1 2. 

Pooh-Poohs,  The,  322. 

Popkin,  Professor,  90. 

"  Post- Prandial,"  18,  273. 

Potter,  Dr.  Henry  C.,  22  (note), 
229. 

Prcntiss,  Dane,  67. 

Prescott,  198. 

Preston,  Harriet,  248,  249. 

"Professor  at  the  Breakfast- 
Table,"  154-156. 

"  Professor's  Story,"  163. 

"  Puerperal  Fever,  Contagious 
ness  of,"  292,  293. 

Puns,  192-194. 

Q 

Quincy,    Dorothy     ("  Dorothy 

Q.H),  20,  205. 
Quincy  family,  20-23. 
Quixote,  Don,  316. 

R. 

44  Rip,"  273. 

Rolfe,  Benjamin,  75. 

Rush,  Dr.  Benjamin,  306. 

s. 

Sanborn,  F.  B.,  16,  182. 
Sargent,  Kpe»,  98. 


Sargent,  Henry  Winthrop,  84. 

Sargent,  John  Osbome.  83,  91, 
98,  106. 

Sargent,  Mrs.  John  Turner, 
1 16. 

Saturday  Club,  139. 

Science  Applied,  319. 

Sewall  family,  18. 

Slang,  322. 

Slavery,  181-184. 

Smith,  Sydney,  37. 

44  Soundings  from  the  Atlantic," 
190. 

Sparks,  Jarcd,  45. 

Stackpole,  J.  L.,  113. 

Stafford,  Edward,  quaint  re 
ceipt,  310. 

Stearns,  Dr.  Oliver,  78. 

Stearns,  Rev.  Samuel  Horatio, 
73- 

Stiles,  Ezra,  38,  43,  44. 

Stuart,  Professor  Moses,  74. 

Study  of  the  Poet,  204,  205. 

Sumner,  Charles,  81. 


T. 

Taylor,  Bayard,  282. 

Thackeray,  239. 

Theology   of    the    Poet,    256- 

266. 
44  There's  no  Time  like  the  Old 

Time,"  347. 

Tories  of  Beacon  Street,  113. 
Tractors,    The    Metallic,    296, 

297. 

Translation,  321. 
Turpentine,  326. 


356 


INDEX. 


u. 

Undervaluation,    Mutual,    327, 

328. 
Underwood,    Francis  H.,   133, 

135.  '36- 
"  Uncle  Samuel  and  the  Grind 

ers,"  187-190. 
Unknown,  The,  321. 

V. 

Verplancks,  the,  16. 
Versification,    the     Physiology 

of,  212. 
"  Visit  to  the  Asylum  for  Aged 

and  Decayed  Punsters,"  192, 


Vital  Principle,  308,  309. 
"Voyage    of    the    Good 
Union,"  347. 


Ship 


w 

Washington   Corps,  The   Har 
vard,  88. 
Waterhouse,     Benjamin,    312- 

3'5- 

Wayland,  Dr.,  109. 

Wendell,  Jacob,  16,  18,  19, 
125. 

Wendell,  Oliver,  19,  20. 

"Wendell  P.,"  18. 

Winslow,  Edward,  306. 

Woodstock,  Town  of,  30. 

"Wormwood  Cordial  of  His 
tory,"  1 86. 

Y. 

Yorick,  268  (note),  315 


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